The Broken Ones
by Romulus123
Summary: This is the story of two shattered souls; an apprentice abandoned by her traitor of a master and branded with a mark as sick as the mind of the one who left her and a boy who has never known the love or companionship of another person thanks to the being sealed inside him. Read as they go from the people that nobody wanted to the ones that everyone loves. Discontinued. Rewrite up.
1. The Fun Begins

In the village of Konoha, everything was as it should be. Everyone was happy and cheerful, it was sunny, warm, and all was right with the world. Well, mostly.

The Sandaime Hokage was glaring heatedly at the stack of papers in front of him. This was his third stack today! And it wasn't even noon yet. '_Curse this blasted paperwork. I swear it's mocking me. Damn you Minato',_ Hiruzen thought, '_Why'd you have to go and die? I was supposed to done with this damn hat. When the next poor bastard takes this job from me, I'm making sure that I staple their ass to this chair.' _The Kami no Shinobi sighed and took the first piece of torturous paperwork off the pile and started reading.

It was a report from the ANBU guard that he had watching Konoha's resident Jinchuriki. Sarutobi's gaze grew solemn as he read. Naruto was becoming more and more detached from the world. Inu, the ANBU who wrote the report, said that the little blond hair boy was eating less and less. This was a sure sign of mental and emotional decline. Apart from this fact, the rest of the report was the same as usual. Nothing extra had happened during Inu's shift.

Naruto Uzumaki. The Sandaime was pondered the name. The only Uzumaki he had known personally was the wife of the Shodaime Hokage, Mito Uzumaki, and Kushina Uzumaki, who were also vessels for the Kyuubi. The thing was Naruto didn't look like an Uzumaki. The Uzumaki clan traditionally had red hair. Naruto had yellow hair, not unlike one bastard of a successor that Hiruzen knew. That thought made the Professor's eyes widen. Naruto had basically come out of nowhere. He wasn't listed in the hospital records of newborn babies at the time of the attack. The only way he was identified was in the note that the Yondaime written before his death that described his wishes for little Naruto and the baby's name. So one had to wonder, who was Naruto Uzumaki?

Now Hiruzen wasn't called the Professor for no reason. He was an intelligent man. But even the easiest things can slip past a person in times of crisis. He looked to the wall of his office where portraits of all of the previous Hokages were hung. His gaze zeroed in on the visage of Minato Namikaze. He took in all the important features of his body and listed them off in his head. '_Deep blue eyes, Yellow hair, strong jawline'. _ The old Hokage then pulled a picture of Naruto out of a folder that he had one of his  
ANBU agents take two months ago. He then compared the two pictures. As he did this his eyes were widening to epic proportions. Naruto had deep blue eyes, yellow hair, and as he got older he would probably develop a handsome face with a _strong jawline_. Sarutobi envisioned an older Naruto and put this image next to the one of his late successor. '_Kami…they could be brothers, or worse, Father and son. But Minato never mentioned having a wife or girlfriend. Hell, I never even saw him with a girl besides…Kushina. Damn'. _The Professor felt stupid. Of course Minato wouldn't make any relationship he had public, at least not until he was sure that the village had recovered from the Third Shinobi War. He had a lot of enemies that would love to kill someone close to him.

With a sigh Hiruzen spoke to himself," I need to speak with Jiraiya. He would have been the only one that Minato trusted with information this personal." Before he could continue with that train of thought his secretary opened the door.

"Sorry to disturb you Hokage-sama but it's important", she said with a bow. Sarutobi nodded and gestured for her to proceed. "There has been incident involving a civilian and one of our Ninja", she explained. Hiruzen could guess where this was going. He'd bet money on it. "It's Anko again sir. She put a man in the hospital", the secretary finished with a sigh. And Hiruzen would have won his bet. The new Tokubestu Jonin had major attitude problems. Most of which the Hokage found amusing to some degree. But some of her other, less enjoyable personality traits, included fits of rage and anger whenever her former sensei was mentioned.

Hiruzen pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, "Send her in Akiko." The woman nodded and retreated, closing the door behind her. Half a minute later a teenage girl of sixteen entered his office. She had part of her hair tied up in a sort of pineapple shape and her eyes with solid brown irises were narrowed. She was clothed in a mesh top that clung to her curvy body like a second skin and a tan trench coat hung over her shoulders and down to her ankles. It was opened in the front so that it showed her cleavage but closed enough so that her bust wasn't bare to the world. On her lower body she wore a burnt orange short skirt and standard ninja sandals. Anko plopped down in one the chairs in front of his desk and looked at him. The old man sighed again. He was doing that a lot today and it still wasn't even noon yet!

"What happened this time Anko", Hiruzen asked with an even look. Anko at least had the decency to look sheepish.

"Well, you see-"

"Anko, Just tell me what happened", Sarutobi said with a glare. He wasn't in the mood for her games. He had possible children of Hokages to investigate.

Her eyes hardened and she started to explain what went down, "Some drunk asshole started to get smart with me."

"What exactly did he say that made you attack him?"

"He said that he didn't know that the students of traitors were allowed to be ninja. And then he had the gall to ask Kurenai if she knew why the 'Snake Whore' wasn't with her master. I honestly don't see what the big deal is. She put him in a genjustu so he probably didn't even feel it when I started breaking his face."

Hiruzen rubbed his eyes and sighed…again. He was too old for this shit. He looked back at Anko and had to suppress a smile. She had produced a stick of dango out of nowhere and proceeded to munch on it.

"Anko, you can't just go around beating up people that say things that you don't like. It has happened before and it will happen again."

"Why shouldn't I?!", she yelled, "I deserve the same respect everyone else! I risk my life for this village, too." A defeated look settled on her face. "Why can't I ever step out of the shadow that bastard cast over me", she questioned as she unconsciously rubbed her neck.

Hiruzen's eyes softened into a sad look. Her predicament was similar to Naruto's. But regardless, he would have to punish her. This was the fifth time something like this had happened. She needed to learn. '_Don't give up Anko. You will prove them wrong someday'. _His eyes then hardened again as he thought about Naruto. '_I know in my heart that you are his son. I need Jiraiya's proof but until I can get in touch with him I need to start fixing things before they get worse. Maybe I can kill two birds with one stone. He desperately needs some to acknowledge him and she needs someone to take her mind off of Orochimaru.' _He grinned evilly as he looked at the girl in front of him, making her sweat nervously.

"You do remember what I said last time an incident like this occurred, don't you Anko," he asked in a sickly sweet voice. She paled.

"Y-yeah. You said that you would have to punish me, right?"

"Yes. Now then. You have two choices. One; you can take a six month probation with minimal pay and you are dropped off the T&I unit for that period…" She paled even more. She loved the T&I unit. They treated her like a real person and she had friends there. Plus the pay was spectacular.

"What's the second choice?"

"The second choice is; you have to do me a favor." Hiruzen inwardly laughed. This would be fun.

"What kind of favor? And do I get paid?"

"Weeeelll, you would have to watch a child for me. He is to enter the academy in two years but I have a feeling that the Academy teachers won't be much help in this one's ninja career."

"What! You want me to babysit some gaki?!" Anko had a look of disbelief on her face. She was ninja, a deadly kunoichi. She wasn't some nanny.

Hiruzen shook his head and laid Naruto's file in front of her, "This isn't a regular child, Anko." Her eyes widened as she read the contents of the folder. "You know how the villagers treat him. I have just recently come to my senses with him, but I fear it might be too late. Recent ANBU reports have shown deteriorating health and mental stability. He is a child Anko and they treat him as if he never existed. I would hate to know how that would affect him."

She looked at her leader skeptically, "It says here that he has had familial contact before. Surely his condition isn't that bad."

The Hokage nodded, "That familial contact was brief and it most likely left him more broken than he was before it happened. That was another mistake on my part but I've made a lot of mistakes when it comes to him," Hiruzen sighed and continued before the girl could ask questions, "He needs this Anko. Train him. Get him ready to cope with the real world. Once the villagers find out that their plan didn't work they will probably go to plan B, which is treating him the way that they treated you."

Anko's body stiffened as she heard this. That would probably drive him over the edge of sanity. Going from eight years of being ignored to having insults hurled at you for reasons you didn't understand would break anyone. She made her decision.

"I accept", she spoke with conviction. She glared out the office window at the village below. '_I won't let you bastards get your way. He is like me and I won't let you kill him_'

Hiruzen smiled when he saw the determination in her eyes. '_That's what this village was founded on. The will to protect others has all but disappeared but I think that it will come back, greater than before._'

He pulled out the mission scroll that miraculously had already been filled out with the mission details and handed it to her.

"This is a B-Rank mission Anko. A lot is riding on this. He can't live alone anymore. So you can either move him in with you or into one of the apartments in your complex. The choice is yours." She nodded as she took the scroll. Weekly pay from this mission plus the pay from the T&I unit would be enough to support both of them. "I suggest you go introduce yourself right away. Apparently he hasn't been eating like he is supposed to." She nodded and disappeared in a shunshin.

Sarutobi smiled, completely oblivious to the fact that he had just assigned a girl who has a volatile personality, enjoys her job, and works at the Torture and Investigation unit to teach a child, who has had no real contact with people and has clean emotional slate, the rules of society and how to be a person. The majority of the village's populace felt a shiver go up their spine as they all simultaneously thought '_Why do I feel as if a monster has just been created?'_ Hiruzen's smile dropped as he looked back at the pile of paperwork, "I hate you with a burning passion. Heh, 'burning'." His smile returned along with the visual of the stack of paper on fire.

* * *

Across the village in Naruto's apartment said little boy was lying down in bed staring sadly at the ceiling. His eyes were red and puffy from crying. His stomach growled painfully but he ignored it. His skin wasn't as tan as it usually was because he hadn't left the house in a week or so. He had nowhere to go. He was content to let his mind wander and shut the world out like it did to him. He thought about eating but there wouldn't be a point. Food was for energy. Energy was for doing things like playing with friends. Naruto didn't have any friends. He didn't really even know what a friend was. He had thought he known what family was once. But apparently not. You could only learn so much from books. Sometimes you had to experience things for yourself.

He closed his eyes and just as he was about to drift back off to sleep he heard a sound. It was a noise foreign to his ears. It was a dull hollow sound. The sound repeat three times before the apartment was silent again. He shrugged and closed his eyes again. He really just wanted to go back to sleep. He didn't have time for random noises. _Thud, thud, thud. _There it was opened his eyes again and turned his head to look toward his living room where the sound was originating. He slowly got out of bed to go investigate. He really wanted to sleep. This noise was troublesome.

* * *

At the Nara ranch across the village a certain pineapple haired boy sneezed in his sleep.

* * *

Anko was getting irritated. The blond gaki wasn't answering his door. She knocked for a third time and waited. After a minute of waiting she turned around to leave and come back later in the day. Maybe the boy wasn't at home. Just as she hit the first step of the stairwell she heard the door creak open only to be stopped by the chain lock on the door. She turned around to see a pair of cerulean eyes peeking out the crack in the doorway. She couldn't see much because the boy's apartment was very dark. Once his gaze found hers his eyes widen with surprise and a little bit of fear.

She saw the fear in his eyes and decided to try and take things slow she took a small step towards the door and smiled, "Hey-." The door shut quickly. "there…"

* * *

Naruto was confused. He was also frightened. That woman was a ninja. He had read that ninja only visit civilians if they are clients or if they were arresting said civilian. So there could only be two reasons why she was there. One could be immediately discarded because Naruto wasn't a client. So why would they be arresting him? His heart started to beat quickly and his breaths became faster.

"Please open the door. I'm not here to hurt you…Naruto." The blonde's breath caught in his throat. She spoke to him. No one ever spoke to him. Not ever. Not since that one woman. No. He couldn't think about her. He had to focus on the now and whoever that woman was. She even said his name. Now he was more confused than frightened. If she wasn't here to arrest him or hurt him then why was she here? No one visited him. Nobody even came close to visiting him. This girl had, in the past minute, done three things that Naruto had never experienced in his life. He didn't understand. And he found himself wanting answers. So he grabbed a stool and stood on it to undo the chain latch. He jumped down and moved the stool before slowly opening the door.

* * *

Anko grinned when the door started to open. It soon disappeared when she took in his appearance. He didn't have a shirt on and she could easily count his ribs. She could tell that he hadn't been eating on a regular basis. His expression was blank except for as slightly furrowed brow. His eyes weren't as puffy but you could still tell that he had been crying. She frowned. His eyes were filled with confusion but other than that they looked…dead. It was like he was staring through her instead of actually focusing on her body.

She forced a smile when really all she wanted to do was kill some villagers. He should have been a bright and happy child that was filled with life. Instead he was this, more of a shell than a person. She looked into his apartment and strained her eyes trying to pick out objects in the dark. She eventually gave up and turned her focus back to the boy in front of her.

She grinned at him, "So can I come in or what, gaki? We have things to discuss." Naruto hesitated before nodding and opening the door more so she could enter. He turned on the light in the living room and kitchen. It wasn't much because they were very dim. Apparently Naruto liked the darkness. He sat down at the kitchen table and gestured for her to take a seat. She noticed that he wasn't talking and that unnerved her. But she assumed it was because he never had anyone to talk to. She secretly wondered how long it had been since he has had to use his voice.

She sat down and she looked at him. And he looked at her. And she looked at him. And….the he gestured for her to explain. His not talking was really getting to her. She wanted a conversation but she sighed and continued regardless.

"Well, you are probably wondering why I am here right", she asked. He nodded again. She leaned her head down on the palm of her hand with her elbow resting on the tabled as she looked at him and continued, "I'll start off by asking if you are at all interesting in becoming a ninja?" He paused for a second before gesturing that he was. "That's good, because that's why I'm here. Usually before any clan child enters the Academy they undergo years of some kind of physical training or conditioning. Hell, even the civilian born ninja hopefuls do something to help prepare them for the classes at the school. Have you done anything like this?" Naruto shook he his and she smiled. "That is where I come in gaki."

Naruto looked at her for a moment before speaking, "There is more." His voice was rough and you could tell he hadn't spoken in a long time. But you could also tell that it wasn't a question. Anko grimaced inwardly. The kid was smart. She guessed that you had to be in order to live like he did.

She tried to play it off, "What do you mean by that?"

"Why would the Hokage pay you to train me for the Academy for an extended period of time? You could just leave me with a workout plan and be on your way. It doesn't add up."

She looked at him seriously, "Look Naruto. There is very important information about yourself that you aren't privy to at the moment. It is my job to make sure that when the Hokage decides you are able to cope with the information that you are also ready to handle any consequences that come with it."

"And I am assuming that you won't tell me?"

She shook her head slightly, "Sorry gaki, orders are orders" He nodded.

"So what do we do first?"

"Well today we are going to move you in with me in my apartment. That way I can keep an eye on you and make it easier for you to keep in touch with me. I have a second bedroom that acts as guest bedroom. Not that I have guests." '_Except for Nai-chan but she doesn't count._'

Naruto's eyes widened. He was moving in with her. This was overwhelming. He had always been alone. Even in the orphanage, no children shared his room. Nobody ever wanted anything to do with him. So why was she any different? His eyes narrowed slightly with suspicion. And why was the Hokage just now taking interest in him? He would get his answers. But first he had to deal with this training and the Academy. He could do that. It might be enjoyable to lay the smack down on some kids for ignoring him. Not that he had any other enjoyable experiences to compare it to. He shrugged. There was a first time for everything. So he nodded and asked what she needed him to get.

She clapped her hands in excitement, "Okay. So go get anything you want to bring with you. Forget clothes because we will be going to get those today along with some training equipment." He nodded and took it in stride as he gathered all his books and a few manga's that he enjoyed. Nothing else really mattered. He put on a shirt and shoes and brought all his stuff back to Anko. She asked him if this was it and he nodded. She then pulled out a scroll and stacked all the reading material on some weird symbol and she seemed to concentrate for a second before all his thing disappeared in a puff of smoke. His eyes widened. That seemed useful. Maybe she would teach him how to do it. She put the scroll inside her coat and smiled as she got up.

"Come on gaki. Let's go get you some clothes worthy of the bad ass I'm going to make you into", she said with conviction. She opened the door and strolled out after gesturing for him to follow. He quickly snapped out of his stupor and followed.

* * *

As they strolled through the village a bewildered look settled on Naruto's face. The villagers were actually looking at him and whispering among each other. They never looked at him, let alone talked about him. At least not that he ever heard. Every once in a while he would catch one of them glaring or leering lustfully at Anko. This didn't sit well with Naruto. He felt this intense urge to kick quite a few of the male ones in the nads. This confused him even more than the villagers. He had never felt like this before, like he was safe near Anko. Maybe it was because she was the first person to speak to him. Was it a normal reaction? He would have to read up on it. Books always explained things that confused him.

Before he could contemplate this warm feeling more, his temporary guardian stopped abruptly and Naruto almost ran into her. She turned around and looked at him.

"The woman that runs this shop is an amazing person and has always been there for me. So you had better treat her with respect. You got it?" Naruto nodded quickly. Anko eye-smiled and patted his head. "Good. Then we won't have problems. Now come on, daylight's wasting." And with that she led him into the little shop.

As they entered a little aged lady looked up from her spot at the counter, "Ohayou, Anko-chan!"

"Ohayou, Sayuri-baachan" The old lady smiled and looked at Naruto.

"This must be the boy you told me about earlier right" , Sayuri questioned. Anko nodded.

"Do you have the outfit ready or do you need more time?"

Sayuri scoffed, "You insult me Anko-chan. I have it ready and even had enough time to make a couple more sets. I even made one for when he gets older and bigger" Anko grinned.

"Ok Naruto it's time to introduce you to one of the most spectacular articles of clothing ever invented" Naruto nodded and Sayuri waved Anko and him to the changing room in the back. Anko shoved him inside and started bouncing on her feet anticipating what he would look like.

Sayuri sighed at Anko's antics and spoke to Naruto, "Naruto-kun. The outfit is on the shelf" There was a small sound of acknowledgement and the shuffling of clothing as he undressed and slid on his new outfit. He took a moment to look in the mirror and nodded.

"Ah…I'm ready", he said quietly.

"Well then come out already, gaki. I wanna see you", Anko urged with impatience in her voice. The door the changing room slowly opened and Naruto stepped out.

Sayuri smiled sweetly, "You look wonderful, Naruto-kun"

Anko scoffed, "What an understatement. He looks badass." Said boy was clad in a mesh undershirt with ANBU style cargo pants on his legs and he wore black steel-toed Combat boots. But the article that stood out to the most was the pitch black trench coat that hung off his shoulders. Nine orange flame-like designs curled up from the bottom of the coat. Naruto's Trench had a hood and on the hood was an orange tribal depiction of a fox head with red eyes.

Sayuri frowned at Anko's language in front of Naruto but she sighed and resigned herself that it couldn't be helped. Anko turned to her grandmother figure and smiled, "Ok Baa-chan. How much do I owe you?"

Sayuri just waved her off, "Nothing this time Anko-chan. Just think of it as a token of my faith. You had better well with him." Anko just eye-smiled and pumped her fist.

"What's there to worry about? I'll make sure he acts just like me."

"That's what I'm afraid of", Sayuri deadpanned. Anko face-faulted and Naruto let a small smile grace his lips.

Anko stood back up and took Naruto's hand and the bag containing the rest of the boy's clothes. They said goodbye to Sayuri and Anko dragged Naruto to her favorite Dango stand to eat.

* * *

The rest of the day passed without any more major occurrences. Naruto asked about what he would be learning for the two years before the Academy. To which Anko just smiled creepily and told him that he would find out soon enough. The rest of the day played out like that. Anko would lead him around the village and show him different things while he asked about her daily life and what her job was. Finally when it got dark they arrived and Anko's apartment with Naruto looking dead on his feet from all that had happened in the day. Both physically and mentally. Anko showed him around the place and his bedroom before he went off to take a shower.

Anko smiled to herself, "This might actually be fun. He sure is an interesting little dude." She heard the shower shut off and the door to Naruto's room open before the apartment went silent. She waited for a few minutes before she got up and peeked into his room. She smiled. He was dressed in pajama bottoms and a shirt and he had passed out on top of the covers. She silently moved into the room and slid the blankets out from underneath him over his body as she tucked him in. '_You had better get used to being tired, gaki. Because when we start this bed will be your best friend_' She grinned and slipped out of the room and quietly closed the door. She got ready for her own bed and laid down. She closed her eyes and whispered, "Goodnight, Naruto." That night, for the first time in a while, she didn't have nightmares about her old sensei.

* * *

**Sup guys? I liked the chapter but I was rushing there at the end. Ill try not to do that next time. And I will try to make this story have good grammar and make it understandable to the average human being. I hate stories like that on here. You take a look at the summary of a story and you think its pretty good. And then you start actually reading the story and it's like someone took a shit on your computer screen. It stinks and you want someone to clean it up. And If anyone is interested in being a Beta for my story then by all means drop me PM. although Im not entirely sure how that whole business works. So drop a review and tell me how you liked it and how I can make it better.  
**

**Update #1-I have deleted the prolouge for this story. It was originally a crappy one-shot that I felt like continuing and it really didn't set the appropriate mood for this story. So I have tweaked this chapter a little so that you can start with it and still understand the story. I will be making another prolouge but only when I have time.**


	2. A Stormy Night

**Hey guys. I wanna thank you for the reviews, they mean a lot. I wanna send a special shout out to BROOD MASTER. Dude. Those ideas were spectacular. I don't think Ill be able to fit in the Predators one simply because I don;t know enough about it to fit it in smoothly, but I can totally work the Assassin's Creed material. I could see this Naruto adopting the whole 'Kill one. Save a thousand.' philosophy. And the fighting style would work well with the Hebi style. I hope you like how I did it. Also you guys I put three song references in this. Two are blatantly obvious. I also put in a movie quote/reference. The first person to get all of them correct will get a special cyber cookie.**

**P.S. I changed Naruto's age to 8. I figured that 8 years difference between Anko and Naruto would be more acceptable than 10. So that means that Naruto will enter the academy at 10 and graduate at 13. **

**P.S.S. Do you guys want me to skip directly to Naruto's time at the Academy or type out the entire year and a half left until then? Let me know in a review because Im too lazy to set up a poll.**

* * *

It had been two weeks since Naruto had been taken into the home of Anko Mitarashi's home and they still hadn't started training. When he asked about it she responded that he needed to, quote, 'Put some meat on his scrawny ass'. And he had. You could hardly see his bones now. He figured they would start soon.

Naruto, at the present, was sitting on his queen sized bed in his room. He had taken quite a liking to the colors black, red and orange. Those were the colors on his comforter. Also foxes had wormed their way into his life. He was unsure why he felt so comfortable around the animals. But when he had gotten his comforter made Sayuri had woven a big fox with nine tails into the design. It was strikingly detailed. It made him feel warm and safe. Like no one could touch him, especially so when he slept. It was like the fox's snarling face scared all the bad things in world away. His room itself was homey. He had a few thick blankets nailed up over the window to block out most of the light and his dressers were simple right now but he planned on painting them at some point.

As he sat, Naruto pondered on the feelings he had been getting lately. Like when he felt that warm feeling while he was walking through the village with Anko. He went to the library to get a book on emotions so he could try and pinpoint what it was. He had narrowed down the list to three things. The symptoms pointed to gratitude, hope, or love. But that's when he got stumped. He didn't have enough experience with these little things called emotions to understand which he was feeling. Was he grateful to Anko? Of course he was. She had changed his life for the better. Even if it wasn't entirely her choice, it was a mission. That fact made him sad but he just decided to take what he could get. But she also gave him hope; or at least if the definition was anything to go by. Apparently hope was the emotional state which promotes the belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one's life. The only one he could rule out completely was love.

Love, according to the book, was a strong attach or infatuation with a person or object. Despite how nice she was and the fact that she treated him differently, Naruto knew that Anko didn't love him. And she probably never would. No one would. The villagers made that obvious. During the two weeks they had started to acknowledge him. But to be honest, he preferred it when he was ignored. When he was with Anko they would stay silent. But the eyes were the door into the soul and they couldn't hide their eyes. And he could see their eyes. He could see the anger, the contempt, but most of all he could see the hatred.

He knew of these emotions. His manga mentioned them and portrayed them good. There was a lot of bad emotions between the two groups that his manga told about. The ones who hid in the shadows and were silent were the ones he liked. This group was devoted to the protection of the innocent and they battled against the ones who sought power for selfish reasons. These were the ones whose leaders would cut down their own family on the way to the top.

But anyway, it was when he wasn't with Anko that the villager's true colors showed for all to see. The comments were slowly driving him mad. He couldn't understand. They hurt. Worse than being ignored and he couldn't, for the life of him, figure out the reason he caused so much hatred.

'_Demon'_

'_Murderer' _

'_Monster'_

These were some of the things that he heard. He didn't think he was a demon. He looked up the term. A demon was being of malevolence that sought to corrupt or destroy. And he had never killed. He could possibly be a monster. But he wasn't sure how. But these things were started to get to him. When everyone is telling you one thing and logic is telling you another. One has to wonder which is correct.

Naruto was pulled from his thoughts when his door opened. In the doorway was Anko.

"Hey gaki, its training time. Eat some breakfast and then meet me outside", she grinned. She had hell in store for him. She had gotten some chakra weights for his arms and legs and when Jiraiya decided to show up she would get him to put some resistance seals on Naruto. They were much more efficient and shouldn't stunt his growth. For a child of eight years old Naruto was rather tall; standing at a solid 5'1" in the morning.

Naruto nodded. He threw on his outfit and fixed himself some cereal. He ate and brushed his teeth before exiting the building. Anko was waiting for him like she said and she grabbed his shoulder before shunsining them both to Training Ground Thirty-Two. She knew he wasn't ready for her regular spot. It wasn't called the Forest of Death for no reason. She wouldn't take him there until he was strong and fast enough to fight or escape from most of the creatures in the forest.

"Okay Naruto, put these on", she handed him a pair of armored bracers and greaves. They had weight seals engraved into the metal but they were hidden inside the other engravings on them. Right now they were set for fifteen pounds for each arm and legs. She would increase them ten pounds every time she thought he was moving to easy. She also handed him a red flak jacket. It weighed fifteen pounds regularly but she increased the chakra weights it would weigh about forty pounds. It also wasn't designed like the regular Konoha flak jacket. It was made of Kevlar and it was thicker around the spine, chest, and abdominal areas. It also protected the neck better. Instead of a thick collar like a regular Flak Jacket, it was more of a turtleneck that was mad of padded interlocking steel plates that allowed free movement, but wouldn't allow an enemy to be able to slit his throat if they got inside his guard. The jacket was pricy but apparently it would grow with him. She didn't quite understand how that was possible but fuck it. She didn't have to. It was cool as hell.

Naruto thought so as well when she explained how the jacket worked. It was extremely manly also. He slipped the jacket on under his trench coat and strapped on his bracers over his coat sleeves and the greaves over the legs of his cargo pants. Anko nodded.

"Ok, how do they feel?"

Naruto paused and moved his arms and legs to experiment with how the new armor affected his movement before answering, "Heavy."

Anko face faulted before getting up and sighing.

"Ok, we are going to start you off with two hundred push-ups and sit-ups. After those, find a low branch one of the trees and do one hundred pull-ups", she said while gesturing to the multitude of trees around the grassy clearing. There were plenty to choose from. "After that I want you to go to the posts over there in the middle of the field and do one hundred punches and kicks with each arm and legs", she pointed at the three wooden posts and took a breath. Naruto thought she was finished and started getting in the correct push-up position. She then started to speak again resulting in Naruto falling on his face.

"After all that I want you to sprint ten sets of four line suicides and that should be enough for today. We'll increase the exercises weekly. I'll be doing my own thing while you do that. But don't worry. These all-exercise training sessions will only last until you are strong and fast enough to begin taijutsu and chakra molding lessons", she finally finished. Naruto nodded. That was logical. He began his exercises.

It had taken about four hours for Naruto to get through most of his work out and he wasn't finished. He was on his first set of suicides and he was ready to give up. But he couldn't give up. He would never get anywhere if he gave up.

He nodded to himself felt reinvigorated. He started running again. His legs started to burn. He still kept running. With every breath he took, he tasted blood and his chest ached. He kept running.

Finally, he had finished the ten sets and he slowly made his way over to his sensei who had been working twice as hard as he had. She smiled when she saw him but the edges of his vision were going dark.

They locked eyes and Anko nearly jumped. Gone were the dead orbs she had come to associate with the boy. They had been replaced, at least for the moment, with eyes burning with determination. At least until they rolled up into his head as he passed out.

Anko grinned as she caught him, "You're gonna go far kid."

* * *

It had been three months since that day and Naruto had changed a lot. He had grown another two inches. He had also toned up a lot. He had turned into a very fit and muscular eight year old. He had changed his weights again. He now wore thirty-five pounds on each arm and leg.

Right now he was with Anko in front of a huge forest that was surrounded by a giant fence. Anko was grinning. Naruto however, was wondering what was causing the noises he was hearing.

"This is the Forest of Death, gaki. If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some R&R after we get out of this forest. Beyond that fence every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes. Always pay attention to your surroundings. If you don't then the forest will eat you and shit you out dead with zero warning. We will be living here for the next six months. Only I will get to leave and that will just be to get any supplies that we can't get here in the forest", Anko explained with a wicked grin on her face. Naruto nodded with wide eyes.

"Then let's go", she yelled. At with that Anko took off into the forest with Naruto right behind.

* * *

Naruto would like to say that he enjoyed his time in the forest with Anko simply because she was there. But that would be lie. The forest had taken the courtesy of teaching him another emotion; paranoia. Anko's description was very accurate. Everything in the forest did seem to want to eat him. Every-fucking-thing. Especially those goddamn spiders. Naruto had developed a burning hatred for those eight legged bastard. They were everywhere; in the trees, on the ground, and even his sleeping bag. And these weren't your regular spiders. They usually never got smaller than your head, with the biggest ones being the size of horses. And more often than not they were venomous.

But he had also learned a lot in the forest. His reflexes were almost instantaneous. Anko had made that a requirement. He had to be able to react quickly when learning the Hebi style. He also got very good at dodging. Anko had a game that he called the Lets-throw-pointy-things-at-Naruto-and-count-how-many-he-avoids-before-death game. Apparently it was fun because she was always laughing when she started the game, usually without warning. Naruto failed to see the humor.

He had also learned useful survival skills.

His favorite thing that he had learned was taijutsu and chakra molding. When he had first started with the chakra molding they discovered that he had ridiculously large chakra reserves. While this was awesome, it also meant that his chakra control was shit. This was less awesome. But that problem was quickly and painfully resolved by Anko. She taught him the tree walking exercise but that wasn't enough. She then taught him how to water walk…painfully. She made him run around on a pond while she threw shuriken and rock at him. And he did this without his armor on so he picked up his fair share of cuts and bruises. He also picked up cussing during this exercise. It didn't help anything but It made him feel better.

His taijutsu wasn't something to be trifled with.

* * *

**Flashback no Jutsu**

Anko was standing across from Naruto in a clearing. She grinned, "Ok Naruto, I am going to start teaching you the Hebi style. This style revolves around the user being able to weave around and slip into the enemies guard and strike from unexpected angles. Our style focuses on attacking the body's weak points; the eyes, throat, groin, joints, and pressure points." Naruto nodded in understanding. Anko continued, "You are fast and your reflexes are quick enough for you to utilize the Hebi style to some good degree. But good isn't enough. Your body is just a little too stocky to truly master it. So you should take the Hebi style and add your own thing to it. Alter the katas to fit your body."

For a moment Naruto was disappointed that he could completely Anko's style effectively but then the gears in his mind started to turn. If he combined the abilities to weave around guards and dodging and countering enemy attack that the Hebi style utilizes with his own idea then it could be ridiculously deadly. The hebi style was used to cause pain and incapacitate. But what if instead of dodging a punch and then countering with a pressure point strike that the enemy could ignore, he could quickly grab the offending arm and break it. This would leave the enemy open to a string of bone crushing blows before they even knew what happened. He grinned. Or he could weave his way inside the enemies guard, grab them, and land repeated blows to the body because he would be to close for them to effectively counter. Naruto's grin slowly widened as he thought of all the possibilities.

"I think I could work with that", Naruto said. Anko smiled.

"Would did you have in mind", she inquired.

He smirked knowingly at her.

"I believe that would be telling."

**Flashback no Jutsu End**

* * *

And that brought the duo to the present. Anko hadn't seen any of this new style. The only time he trained with him in taijutsu was to help him master the basics of the Hebi style. All the other times he had been training with his shadow clones away from Anko's prying eyes. He had learned the Kage Bunshin because he had way too much to chakra to make a regular Bunshin. Even though his chakra control was good now, he still couldn't make one.

Right now they were at the end of the sixth month and Anko was going to assess his skills. They stood in a clearing in the forest. It was basically dirt with a few boulders and fallen trees. The air was hot, humid, and filled with the scent of the forest; a strong musky scent one would associate with animals and heavy vegetation.

"Ok gaki, this is it. After this we are out of here. One more year after today is when you start the Academy. We'll have to see what we can fit in to that time period. But for right now, come at me bro", she said while slipping into the hebi style stance.

Naruto responded by yelling '**Kage Bunshin no Jutsu' **Two clone popped into existence beside him and threw a volley of shuriken and kunai at her while the original rushed forward. Anko dashed backwards while deflecting the projectiles with a recently drawn kunai. She then flashed through hand-seals and shouted **'Katon: Goryuka no Jutsu'.** She filled her lungs with air and spat out a gigantic fireball at the real Naruto. Instead of dodging the flaming ball of death like a sane human being, he charged towards it at full speed before dropping to his knees and bending back and flattening his torso to the ground, in an awesome show of badassness and flexibility, slid under the fireball. He jumped up with just slight singeing of his eyebrows to show. He didn't slow momentum and he and his clones, who had just ran around the fireball, closed in on her.

The clone on the left got their first and engaged her with a kunai while the original and the other clone charged into her blind side. Anko smacked away a stab from the clone Naruto before spinning and round-housing it in the face. There was a crunch as the clone's jaw broke and a pop when it dispelled. She then dodged a jab from the real Naruto. She twirled around him and pointed her right arm at his clone. She yelled **'****Sen'eijashu!' **and vipers flew from her sleeve and sunk their fangs into the clone's throat and arms, dispelling it. The snake retreated back into her sleeve just in time for her to bring both of his arms above her head to block an axe kick courtesy of Naruto. She pushed up against the leg causing him to do a backflip. He landed on his feet and rushed her again. She threw a precise finger jab with her left hand at a pressure point on his chest. She expected him to dodge backwards. What she didn't expect him to do was smack the inside of the offending arm sending the arm to the side causing her to go slightly off balance.

Naruto used this chance to punch her in the stomach with his right hand. He then sent chakra to his knuckles causing them to stick her belly. He used this stick to pull himself into her guard. This shocked Anko and that moment of surprise allowed Naruto the punch her in throat extremely fast and extremely hard…three times…in quick succession. He let go of her abdomen and spun around to slam his elbow violently into ribs causing her to double over into his back. He quickly grabbed her right arm and pulled her over his shoulder slamming her on her back into the hard ground. The air in her lungs left in whoosh and Naruto stomped on her chest for good measure, cracking a rib or two. He reached into his weapons pouch and pulled out a kunai and held it to her rapidly bruising throat.

For Naruto this all happened in a flash. No more the eight seconds was all it took for him to lay an ass beating on his sensei; all because she underestimated him. For Anko this happened…equally as fast just ten times more painfully. She couldn't even speak to surrender because she was still trying to gather air into her aching chest. Once her lungs started functioning again she groaned.

"W-what the hell, gaki? That fucking hurt", she questioned with her face in a grimace. Naruto stood up with a bewildered expression on his face. Her question confused him. Wasn't the point of fighting to do harm to your opponent? Perhaps he had been a bit excessive?

He but he kunai back in his pouch and extended a hand down to her. She took it and he pulled her up.

"What the hell was that, gake? How'd you stick to me", she questioned while hunching over a little. He ribs felt like they were burning. He must have cracked a few. But her throat hurt worse. He didn't pull any punches and she probably would be sticking to soup for at least a week and a half.

Naruto shrugged, "I got the idea from the tree walking exercise. I just send chakra to the tips of my fingers or my knuckles and stick to you. I can also do it on my skin causing someone's hand to stick to me wherever the blow landed." Anko's eyes widened '_That's genius. And I can see how that would work with the hebi style. If you got inside there guard and then stuck there'_

She then groaned again, "Good work, gaki. Now help me back to camp so we can pack up and get the hell out here." She started coughing and she whimpered in pain. Naruto felt a tightening in chest when he saw this and it felt like his heart was aching. He looked down to see if he was injured. He was not. The feeling increased when he saw the purple splotches on her neck get darker. He rubbed the aching area and thought. '_I will have to look in the book again. First the heat in my chest and the reddening of my face and now this aching. They both seem to be caused by her.' _With that he got under her right arm and helped her back to camp.

* * *

The next day around noon the duo finally made it back to the village and Naruto was still helping Anko hobble along. As they slowly made their way along the flat dirt streets, the villagers were looking at the two with a multitude of expressions. Some were disappointed, these confused Naruto, and some were happy. These were the ones that made him angry. Were they happy that she was hurt? Why would they be happy? She was a ninja of the village. She protected them. So why the hell were they happy?! And then there were the lustful leers from some of the men. They staring at her chest because there were slashes and holes in her mesh body suit that showed a little more skin than she wanted. This caused Naruto to be filled with the need to protect his sensei and a rage that he didn't understand. He would add that to list of things he needed to look up. But this rage made his face settle into a glare. How could these men think such thoughts about a girl eight plus years their junior? **[A/N Oh the irony of that question. ;) A/N] **Naruto unconsciously pressed himself closer to Anko.

As they neared their apartment as voice called out to them.

"Anko!"

Naruto turned to see a woman around Anko's age running towards them. She had a chunin Flak Jacket on over a red dress with cloth bandages around it. She looked angry and her red eyes were glaring at him. He assumed that the woman was Anko friend. And seeing a friend who was obviously injured by damn near carried towards her house by someone she didn't know could cause her to jump to conclusions. Anko who was basically dead on her feet, the long walk and her injuries had taken their toll, looked up with lidded eyes.

"Oh…hey…Nai-chan…whats..up", Anko questioned slowly.

"What happened to you? Did this _boy _do this?"

Naruto flinched, he had done this and he could tell that she wanted to say something else instead of 'boy'. He didn't meet her eyes and that tightening in his chest returned. He was also sad. Anko's friend was just like the villagers.

Anko just shook her head and her face turn red with embarrassment, "No Nai-chan. I…uh…got beat in a fight" Kurenai narrowed her eyes at Naruto before lifting Anko's arm off of his shoulders and pushed him rather forcefully back causing him stumble back. Some random villager stuck his foot out and tripped Naruto causing him to fall and smack his head hard on the ground. The surrounding people started laughing and snickering. Kurenai sniffed in disdain, "I'll take it from here." She kept on walking to the complex. Anko couldn't complain because she was somewhere in between awake and unconsciousness.

Naruto slowly pulled himself up and reached around to touch the back of his head lightly. When he pulled his hand away there was blood on it. He just kept his head down and walked in the other direction. He would come back later. The villagers continued to point and laugh. One even said that it was about time the demon got put in his place. Tears slid down his face as he walked away.

* * *

It was dark by the time Naruto finally made his way back to the apartment. He looked up his eyes filled with fear because he saw that the sky was quickly being covered a blanket of thick, rolling, storm clouds. He quickly made his way inside. He entered the apartment using the spare key hidden behind the fake electrical outlet in the hallway. He rushed to take a shower. When he got out he dressed and checked on Anko. He smiled when saw her. She was clean and dressed in night clothes, snoring softly. He closed the door and made it down to his room. He climbed onto his bed and put his back to the headboard and pulled his knees to his chest. He hoped with all his heart that the storm would just roll over the village.

Alas, he hoped in vain. It started to rain. At first it started as a slow drizzle but before long it was slamming into his window in waves. He slowly started to tremble. He knew what was coming soon. A flash illuminated his room and he started to whimper. It was close now. And he could do nothing to stop it. He looked at the clock and it read 10:00 PM. He brought his pillow to his lips. He wouldn't want to wake Anko. She needed her rest. And then a loud roar of thunder rolled through the room and shook the building. A scream tore itself from Naruto's throat. It was muffled by the pillow, but it was sure to be the first of many.

* * *

Anko was jolted awake by a particularly loud peal of thunder. She frowned. She was having a good dream too. She looked over at the clock. It was 12:34 AM. She smiled until it suddenly shut off. She grimaced and reached over and tried to turn off her lamp. It didn't turn on. That power was out.

She sighed and got up to go to the bathroom. After she was done she made her way out of her room to the kitchen. As she passed Naruto's room she heard whimpering. She frowned. She assumed he was having a nightmare. He would be fine. They usually passed and most people didn't remember them anyway. As lightening flashed, thunder followed immediately. She grimaced. '_This would be a brontophobes nightmare' _ She got herself a glass of water and was making her way back to her room when she froze. She had only seen that word one place; Naruto's file. She dropped her glass of water and rushed to Naruto's room.

She opened the door and peeked inside. At first she couldn't see anything but then a flash of lightening illuminated the room. She saw Naruto crying on top of his bed. He had his covers pulled up over his shaking form. His eyes were filled with fear.

"Naruto?"

No response. Just whimpering. She was compelled to do something that she would never do. She slowly walked over to the bed and crawled in under the covers. She wrapped her arms around his trembling form and pulled him close. His arms quickly snaked around her waist and he buried his face into her torso just below her chest and sobbed.

She rubbed his back and cooed, "Shhhh Naruto…it's okay." He kept crying and she bit her lip. Anko remembered a song that her mother used to sing to her when she was scared during storms. Anko was saddened as she remembered her mother but she started singing.

'_**Little child, be not afraid.**_

_**The rain pounds harshly against the glass, like an unwanted stranger.**_

_**There is no danger, I am here tonight.'**_

Naruto stopped crying and it was like the thunder stopped. But it hadn't and so he was still whimpering. Anko continued to sing.

'_**Little child, be not afraid,**_

_**The thunder explodes and lightening flash.**_

_**Illuminates your tear-stained face, I am here tonight.'**_

Naruto had stopped whimpering and his breathing was slowly but tears still flowed down his face. He was not alone, however. Anko had also started crying as bittersweet memories came to the forefront of her mind.

'_**Little child, be not afraid,**_

_**Though storm clouds mask your beloved moon**_

_**And its candlelight beams, still keep pleasant dreams,**_

_**I am here tonight.**_

_**Little child, be not afraid,**_

_**Though wind makes creatures of our trees**_

_**And their branches to hands, they're not real, understand**_

_**And I am here tonight.'**_

Naruto's breathing slowed and he slipped quietly into sleep. Anko smiled sweetly and finished the song with drooping eyes.

'_**But it's dark and it's late,**_

_**So I'll hold you and wait**_

_**'Til your frightened eyes do close. **_

_**And I hope that you'll know,**_

_**That nature is so,**_

_**This same rain that draws you near me.**_

_**Falls on rivers and land,**_

_**On forests and sand,**_

_**Makes the beautiful world that you see**_

_**In the morning.**_

_**Everything's fine in the morning,**_

_**The rain will be gone in the morning,**_

_**But I'll still be here in the morning'**_

And with that Anko let sleep take her. So there they both lay, her arms around him and his arms around her, with contented smiles on both their faces. And try as it might, the thunder could not wake them up.


	3. Lost and FOund

**Hey guys. I was sick this whole week so I had lots of time to work on this chapter. But I want to address your reviews. So here goes.**

**dracohalo117: **No. This story with not have Kurenai bashing in it. Her behavior will be explained in this chapter.

**The Super Saiyan Fox: **Thank you for you awesome review and words of encouragement. I hope you like what I've done with this chapter.

**Jamalymal: ** Yes. I wanted to deviate from that a little. It was ok for the first few stories I read but soon it just got predictable and exaggerated.

**BROOOD MASTER:** I think you will like Naruto's affinities in this story. I think it deviates from the super godlike affinities or those stories where Naruto becomes like the freaking Avatar and starting shooting around all the elemental type's like they're candy with absolutely no strategy or real skill. P.S. I've dubbed you BROOD MASTER. Because you are awesome.

**Just a warning. Kumo will be playing a big part in this story so you will be seeing Team Samui and Yugito. But I'm not sure If do anything with that yet. And just as a side note. Darui is a BOSS!**

**Author note- Yes. I took this chapter down for a few days while I reviewed and fixed it up. Not much changed but I changed it enough to where you might want to check it out again. I think it flows much smoother now but thats just my opinion. I will start on the fifth chapter this week.**

* * *

The sun slowly rose over the village of Konoha. Its rays where reflected by the many puddles made by the storm the night before, making the village sparkle like a gem. One of those stray rays of light shone through the window of one Anko Mitarashi's bedroom where it landed on her face, slowly rousing her awake. Or at least it would have; if Anko had actually been her room. But she wasn't. The Snake Mistress busy sleeping in the almost pitch black room of one Naruto Uzumaki; snuggled under his covers and cuddling into his body. She did not show any signs of waking anytime soon. The same could not be said for her temporary teddy bear. That particular person's internal clock was waking him up.

When Naruto woke up with his eyes still closed the first thing he noticed was that he was unusually warm. Now Naruto was a naturally warm person, but he didn't often wake up feeling this warm because his bed was so big and he usually moved around in his sleep so one spot did not stay heated for long. Naruto shrugged and passed off his not moving as being emotionally exhausted from the storm. However, when the boy tried to get up he found that he could not move. This fact sent him into panic mode and he tensed up. He opened one eye and found himself looking at the purple top of a pajama set. He then looked up and his gaze fell on the sleeping face of his temporary/roommate. In a flash the memories of last night's storm rushed back to him; the paralyzing fear and then the overwhelming sense of calm as she wrapped her arms around him. His eyes widened.

She had held him. And he found himself wishing that he could stay like this, he was craving the warmness and closeness to another human being that he had never had before.

'_She sang to me_' he thought. He wanted to hear her voice comforting him. And he couldn't work out why. Was it just because she was the first person to do these things to him? Or was there something special about Anko herself? He didn't know and it didn't seem like the type of question that books would be able answer. He didn't know what made Anko do that for him or if she would do it again but he decided to get what he could. He noticed that she didn't look like she was waking up anytime soon so he snuggled back up to her and buried his face in her chest. Anko let out an involuntary moan and squeezed him close while laying her face in his soft blonde hair. Naruto quickly fell back asleep.

* * *

Kurenai was wearing a glare on her face; which was normal for her with her being the Ice Queen of Konoha and all. But right now her glare was there for a reason. '_Why was Anko with that boy? She knows what kind of reputation he has. She was just starting to get the respect she deserves. He'll ruin her. Regardless if he knows he is doing it._' She thought. Right now she was nearing Anko's apartment now to try to talk some sense into her friend. She personally didn't think the boy was bad. But the view the villagers had of him was and she had to look out for her friend.

When she got to her friend's apartment complex she walked up the staircase to Anko's door. The Genjutsu Mistress knocked a few times and waited. After a minute she frowned. She knocked again and waited once more. When no one answered her eyes became worried. It was Anko's day off but she would still but up by now since it was 12:15 PM. Kurenai reached into the fake electrical outlet and retrieved the spare key. Maybe Anko's injuries had affected her more than Kurenai originally thought. She unlocked the door and let herself in before closing the door behind her. She headed down the hall to her friend's room so she could check on her.

When Kurenai opened the door to Anko's room she expected to at least see her friend in the bed whether she was ok or not. But she wasn't and this fact alarmed the Genjutsu Mistress because Anko could not have left because Kurenai hadn't seen her around the village and she was much too injured for training. Also, the red-eyed kunoichi had already checked the Dango Shop and Anko had not been there so the only logical explanation was that the girl was at home. Kurenai was walking back down the hall when she heard a small sigh come from Anko's guest bedroom. Bewilderedly, Kurenai opened the door slowly and when she flicked on the light and saw what was inside her jaw dropped.

Anko was on the bed, under a bedspread with a depiction of the Kyuubi on it, snuggling with the very blonde boy that that Kurenai had come here to warn her about. Kurenai froze as several things passed through her mind.

The first thing that the Genjutsu Mistress wondered about was; why was the brat was here?

The second thing that sprung to the forefront of Kurenai's mind was how adorable the scene was and how unbearably cute the little blonde looked as he snuggled up to her friend with a small sleepy smile on his face.

The third and final thing made Kurenai grin evilly and chuckle; this would make perfect blackmail material.

However, these three different things also made Kurenai want to have three different reactions. But instead of choosing one she settled for mixture of them.

She pulled out a camera from seemingly nowhere and snapped a few pictures from different angles. She'd make copies and use a few for blackmail and put a couple in the Kurenai and Anko photo album. She then looked at Naruto's smiling whiskered face let out a very quiet, very girlish squeal of 'Kawaii!' as she contemplated picking him a hugging him to death. But then she remembered why she was here and steeled her gaze.

She took a deep breath and yelled "Oi!" Anko and Naruto jumped awake. Anko groaned as the bright light irritated her retina. Naruto just tensed at the loud voice and since he couldn't see correctly yet he raised his hands in front of his face. Anko growled and wondered who the hell was in her home and woke her from one of the best sleeps she'd had in ages.

"The hell?!" she asked as she looked around before her eyes adjusted and fell on the ftowning form of her best friend, "Oh. Hey Nai-chan what are you doing here?"

Kurenai frowned, "I could ask the same of him. And what's up with the blanket? Better yet, what's with this whole room?"

Anko took on a sheepish look; she had been meaning to introduce Naruto to her best friend but hadn't gotten around to it yet. She grinned nervously, "Ummm. I can explain?"

Kurenai huffed, "You'd better start. What the hell is going on?"

Naruto decided to make his presence known by answering Kurenai's question, "Sleeping. I would have thought that to be obvious. Or did you fail to notice the snoring. You are a ninja are you not?" Normally Naruto wasn't that expressive or outspoken but he wasn't much of a morning person; especially when he actually wanted to stay asleep.

Anko chuckled and actually answered Kurenai's question before she traumatized the boy by putting him a genjutsu filled with green spandex and the Power of Youth.

"Naruto here is very scared of thunder Nai-chan and he kinda freaked out last night. So I came in here when the storm woke me up to try to help him get some sleep. Which I succeeded in but I ended up falling asleep myself," Anko explained.

Kurenai paused and thought, '_That is actually really sweet. And kinda cute that he is scared of thunder. The villagers are dumb. What demon is scared of thunder?_' But then she remembered that despite her own feelings about the little blonde Jinchuriki, the villagers would probably never change their views on him and it wouldn't help her friend's case to be associated with him. So she sighed and spoke to Anko "Can I speak to you in private please, Anko?"

Anko frowned because she didn't like the sound of her friend's voice, but she nodded and got out of bed and followed her friend into her own room. She closed the door and crossed her arms, "What do you want to talk about Kurenai?"

Kurenai narrowed her eyes into a cold and calculative glare, "Why is that boy here Anko? You know who he is don't you?"

Anko returned the icy gaze with an equally fierce one of her own. She didn't like her tone, "Yes I do Kurenai. He is Uzumaki Naruto." She really hoped that her friend wasn't another one of those blasted villagers when it came to Naruto.

Kurenai grimaced. The Snake Mistress was being difficult. She sighed, "Anko. Why is he here? Is he living with you?"

"It was a mission/punishment from the Hokage. He told me to train him and get him ready to be a ninja because the Academy probably wouldn't. And his living with me was a requirement for the mission," Anko explained. Kurenai nodded in understanding, but then her frowned deepened.

"When is this mission scheduled to be over, Anko?" Kurenai asked. Naruto, who had been eavesdropping from his doorway by adding chakra to his ears, listened closely to hear her response.

Anko's face saddened, "I only have to train him until he starts the Academy; so about a year and a half more." Naruto's face fell into a look of despair and disappointment. Did this mean he would have to leave soon?

Kurenai tilted her head bemusement. Anko seemed to dislike the thought of the boy leaving, "Do intend to let him stay with after the mission ends?"

Anko started rubbing her neck subconsciously, a thing she did when she was nervous. She looked at back at the door before turning back to her friend, "I was gonna ask the Old Man if we could make it a permanent arrangement; I've gotten kinda used to him being aro-"

Kurenai thought that this line of action was a bad idea and cut her cut her off in a firm tone, "You shouldn't."

Naruto and Anko's eyes widened.

Anko's showed surprise at her friend. It was strange to see her normally soft-spoken friend speak out against something so trivial. Something was wrong so Anko voiced her thoughts, "What? Why not?"

"He is no good, Anko" Kurenai said matter-of-factly. Naruto started to feel that anger again. What right did this woman have to make such a statement against him? He had never met her in his life and had done worthy of that claim. Anko, however, knew that her best FRIEND was not the type of person that would judge someone else based off the views and opinions of other people. If she was then Anko would have never gotten the chance to form a relationship with her. So the way that the Genjutsu Mistress was acting did not add up. Perhaps the fox was the cause? But that couldn't be it because Kurenai was an orphan even before the Kyuubi attacked the village and as far as Anko knew, Kurenai hadn't lost any friends in the chaos of that night. So Anko just decided to defend Naruto the best she could while trying to identify the cause of her friend's ire towards the fox-like boy.

"You're wrong, Kurenai. He is a cool kid. He is nothing like the people say. If you just gave him a chance-"

Kurenai snapped and interrupted her friend again, "Dammit, Anko! This isn't about what I think of Naruto. I don't have a problem with him. It's about the villagers. They hate him! You just started to earn their respect that you deserve and if you keep hanging out and being near that boy then that will all disappear. You'll be back to square one!"

Naruto didn't quite understand why Anko would have to earn the respect of the village but according to Kurenai he was putting that in jeopardy. Maybe it would be better if he lft. He didn't want to make things hard for Anko. But he didn't expect to hear what anko said next.

"I don't care, Kurenai!"

Kurenai's eyes widened at this exclamation. Now SHE was the one trying to find an explanation. 'Why would she risk all that she had worked to get for this boy?' ,Kurenai thought. Regardless of his burden, he did not seem that special, "But you been trying to do that for years. I thought you wanted to show them that you weren't like Orochimaru. What changed that?"

Anko smiled at the question. She was happy that Kurenai was looking out for her but she wasn't the one who needed looking out for, "Naruto changed that. Some things are more important than other Kurenai. And if the villagers can't respect me then they can kiss my sexy ass. I don't need them. But since Naruto has been here I have been much happier and hardly have any nightmares when I sleep nowadays."

Kurenai was in shock. Anko had been nightmares ever since that Snake bastard left her. Apparently they were products of the Curse Mark feeding on her negative emotions. For them to have been suppressed it would me that she had been having more positive emotions than negative. Was Naruto the cause of that?

"And he needs me, Nai-chan," Anko continued, "When I first met him, he hardly showed in any emotions. He looked like a corpse Kurenai. The villagers have neglected and ignored him for his whole life. He had no friends or parents to love him." Naruto flinched at the mention of parents. That word tended to bring back the bad feelings. They hurt more than the chest tightening emotion he had, identified as guilt.

She picked up a red book and handed it to Kurenai. She her face had fallen into a dejected gaze, "He reads books to try to understand things that he has never felt before. He doesn't even trust me enough to ask about them, Kurenai. He reads to try to figure out his emotions. He needs help; our help. And anyone's we can get along the way."

Naruto was feeling guilt again. He could tell because his chest was tightening again. Perhaps he could start asking her more about these things. 'I should be able to trust her', he decided. If he couldn't trust her he couldn't trust anyone.

Kurenai, for her part, examined the red book in her hand and it indeed proved to be a book about human emotions and how to recognize them. She glanced back up at Anko's face and saw the pleading look that the snake user was giving her. It made her feel good. Her best friend really wanted to help this kid. And he had already helped her. She hadn't seen that fiery look in Anko's eyes in a long time. She closed her eyes and took a deep breath as she made her decision.

"Ok, Anko," Kurenai said finally, "I'll help you fix him." Naruto smiled but felt a little indignant. He wasn't broken; just a little off. He took the chakra from his ears and made his way to the kitchen as he was hungry.

Anko's eyes widened and she hugged her friend, "Yes! I knew you would see it my way. I didn't even have to break out the kunai!" Naruto and Kurenai sweatdropped. Of course she would have resulted to threatening Kurenai physically. She was Anko after all.

Kurenai grinned impishly, "Besides. He is just so cute! Look at him!"

She showed Anko the picture she had taken. Anko was skeptical at first but then she saw his face with the little sleepy smile. He looked like a sleeping fox kit. If only he had little orange furry ears and a bushy tail. She squealed in girlish delight, "I want copies!" Kurenai nodded and put the camera back.

Kurenai smiled and said, "I guess I should go introduce myself correctly." She walked out of the room and Anko followed. They found Naruto sitting on one of the bar stools eating cereal at the kitchen counter. Anko began fixing herself some.

Kurenai sat beside Naruto and stuck her hand out, "Um. Hey, Naruto. My name is Yuuhi Kurenai, a chunin genjutsu specialist. I believe we got off on the wrong foot yesterday."

Naruto looked at her hand for a second before he smiled and took her hand and shook it, "Its okay Kurenai-san."

Kurenai grinned inwardly at his politeness. Maybe Anko hadn't corrupted him too much. She looked at him sheepishly, "Soooo. Friends?"

Naruto looked taken aback for a moment before nodding in agreement, "Friends." But even though Anko had not fully indoctrinated him in her rude and brash ways, her appreciation of a good prank once in a while had rubbed off on him. Or maybe she just awoken some natural ability to humiliate people within him. In any case, he decided to have a little fun and make the genjutsu specialist sweat.

"However, my head still hurts. I think I might have a concussion," he complained while grinning on the inside.

Kurenai's eyes widened and she cursed mentally, 'You little shit!'

Anko narrowed her eyes into an even gaze as she questioned his statement, "What happened to your head, Naruto?"

Kurenai was just about to explain in way that didn't make it seem like it was her fault but Naruto beat her to the punch and did exactly the opposite.

After he finished Anko looked at Kurenai with an eye-smile and spoke in a sickly sweet voice that promised pain, "That true, Nai-chan?"

Kurenai nodded slowly and was about to dash for the door when she felt something wrap around her torso and restrain her arms. She looked down and saw a boa constrictor holding her in place. Anko waved her finger in her friends face, "Nuh-uh, Nai-chan. You are gonna take your punishment like a kunoichi."

Anko then suddenly jumped over the counter, tackled Kurenai to the ground, and straddled her waist and hips, effectively pinning the Genjutsu Mistress down. She then took off Kurenai's Chunin vest and tossed it to Naruto who was sitting on the couch with a fox like grin on his face. Naruto chuckled evilly in his mind and thought, 'You had this coming, Kurenai-san.'

There was one thing that most people didn't know about the Ice Queen of Konoha; she was extremely ticklish.

Anko wiggled her fingers menacingly, "Now be a good girl Nai-chan and try not to piss yourself"

Kurenai's face filled with fear, "You wouldn't." Then she groaned and thought, 'Its Anko. Of course she would.'

Anko then began to mercilessly tickling her best friend as Kurenai laughed hysterically and begged her to stop.

* * *

In a faraway place a white haired toad sage that was peeking on the woman's side of a hot spring lowered his spy glass and thought '_Somewhere, something beautiful is happening_'.

* * *

In the six months that followed that day Naruto hadn't changed all that much. His chakra control had soared once Kurenai had started training with Anko and himself because she had taught him the leaf sticking exercise and the kunai balancing exercise. Anko had also been training him in ninjutsu. He had pretty much mastered the Academy jutsus and he had taken a liking to the Kawarimi. He believed that it could be used with his clones and kunai once he mastered it fully. He could throw a kunai at his opponent and when they dodged it he could replace it with himself and attack from behind or above before they even knew what happened. He had also created a true transformation one day when he was messing around with the Henge jutsu. He had been practicing using it with his clones to hide them around a battlefield to get the drop on the enemy.

But what was really surprising was when Anko started him on elemental jutsu.

**[Flashback no Jutsu]**

"Ok, gaki. It's time we start working on elemental jutsu today," Anko said as she pulled out a piece of paper. Naruto nodded walked up to her. She motioned to her left and pointed to a man in a Jōnin vest that had a mask over the lower part of his face and his Hitai-ate was covering his left eye. He was reading a little orange book and didn't seem to be paying attention.

Anko continued, "This man is Hatake Kakashi. He is a ninjutsu expert and will be helping me teach you. Now take this paper and it will tell us you elemental chakra affinity. If it splits in half, you have wind natured chakra. If it burns and turn to ash, you have fire natured chakra. If it becomes soaked with water then obviously you have water nature. You will have a lightening affinity if it crumples and an earth affinity if it crumbles to dust. Understand?" Naruto nodded and took the paper before channeling chakra into it.

What happened next shocked Anko and Kakashi, who had walked over while Anko was explaining. When the blonde boy channeled his chakra into the paper it crinkleled up really far before becoming completely water logged. Before the paper disintegrated because of how wet it was, it split in half.

Naruto looked up at his senseis and asked, "Is that normal?" Kakashi looked at Anko and jerked his head almost unnoticeably towards the Hokage tower and Anko nodded before addressing her student.

"That's good, gaki. That just means you are even more badass. Now I have to go see the Hokage right quick but Kakashi here will start teaching you about lightening affinities until I get back," With that explained Anko started to walk off the training field.

"The first thing you have to know about lightening chakra is that it is created by rubbing your chakra together to make static and a spark. You can control the power and size of a spark by the amount of chakra you are using and how fast you rub it together…" Kakashi started with Naruto listening intently. Kakashi was happy to help his sensei's son; even though he didn't find out about the boy until recently.

* * *

Anko arrived at the Hokage tower and just started walking up the wall of the building to reach the window to the Old Man's office. This was Naruto's idea. He got tired of having to go up the stair and what not to see his new grandfather figure so he had taken to just coming in through the window. When Anko reached the opening and jumped through the Hokage turned around and smiled at her.

"Ah. Anko. What brings you here today?" he asked. Anko frowned and walked around his desk to sit in of the chairs.

"We either have a really big problem old man or something amazing just happened," Anko spoke with a hesitant grin.

Sarutobi instantly became serious and a stern look settled on his visage, "What do you have to report?" He leaned down and interlocked his fingers under his chin.

"When Kakashi and I were testing Naruto with chakra paper something unexpected happened," Anko explained in a confused tone. Hiruzen motioned for her to go on. She nodded and continued, "The chakra paper showed that Naruto had two very high affinities for Lightening and Water and minor affinity for Wind. Can you shed light on that?"

Sarutobi sat silent for a few moments as he thought before answering "In Kumo they have a clan that uses a Kekkei Genkai called Ranton. It combines lightening and water to create energy beams that are highly dangerous."

Anko just became more confused with the Hokage's answer, "But you said that Naruto's parents were an Uzumaki and the Yondaime Hokage. The Uzumaki weren't from Kumo."

Hiruzen nodded "Yes, that's true but Minato, the Yondaime, was an orphan refugee from one of the villages along the border with Kumo. It is possible that he also had the Ranton Kekkei Genkai and never knew. The Hiraishin that Minato was a Jikūkan Ninjutsu so his Ranton chakra could be the reason that it caused a yellow flash."

Anko nodded but then frowned, "Isn't there anyway we can know for sure or get him tested?"

Hiruzen smiled, "I am actually on very good terms with the Yondaime Raikage despite that fiasco with the Hyūga that his father caused. And Minato was a man that Ē respected. So perhaps he would be willing to do me a favor. But I won't be making any promises." Anko nodded and started to get up to leave when the Hokage called to her,"How is he?"

"Much better Hokage-sama."

"And yourself?"

"Also much better."

And with that she jumped out of his window and went back to the training ground.

The Hokage grinned and laughed to himself, "Who's a genius? Oh, right. I'm a genius." He looked back at the stack of paperwork on his desk and a crazy look came to his eye. His hands flashed through hand seals and he screamed, "DIE!"

If one listened they would hear Akiko, the Hokage's assistant/secretary screaming and an old voice cackling madly as smoke rose from the window of the Hokage Tower.

**[Flashback no Jutsu End]**

As of right now Naruto had advanced very quickly in his Lightening and Wind affinities because of his clones but was finding it difficult to keep calm and make his Water affinity work correctly. His chakra was much too violent and uncontrolled. His task was to make a leaf soggy with only his chakra. But in order to do that he had to make his chakra calm and flowing and not the churning maelstrom that it usually was. And he was getting frustrated.

Across the field from the Jinchuriki were Anko, Kakashi, Kurenai, and Asuma, who had helped Naruto with his Wind affinity and taken a liking to the boy.

Asuma turned to the rest of them and smirked "Wanna bet on how long it takes him to flip out?" Anko and Kurenai smirked and pulled out their wallets.

Kurenai grinned. This was too easy. She had come to know Naruto well in the past six months and she knew that even though the boy didn't show a lot of emotion, when he did get ticked off enough he exploded, "I've got 200 ryo that says that it takes five minutes"

Anko scoffed, "Five? I say that it will take ten minutes. He is a calm person most of the time. Put me down for 200 as well."

Asuma nodded and bet ten minutes also. He turned and looked at his fellow male, "What about you, Kakashi?"

Kakashi was grinning under his mask as he thought, 'He may not show it a lot but Naruto is much more like Kushina-nee than Minato-sensei. And she would already be spazzing out right now_._'

"Hmmmm. I say that in exactly two minutes from now he will freak out and head off to blow something up. 1000 ryo." Kakashi said in a confident tone. The rest of his peers chuckled at his words and shook their heads. Kurenai held the money.

But like Kakashi predicted exactly two minutes later Naruto got fed up.

He jumped up and tore the leaf apart and screamed, "DAMMIT! Fuck this! I'm gonna go make something EXPLODE 'TTEBAYO!" He stormed into the trees with lightening crackling between his fingers.

The losers of the bet, Kurenai, Anko, and Asuma, gawked after the blonde boy and Kakashi held his hand out with an eye-smile.

* * *

**Eleven Months Later-One month until the Academy starts.**

Naruto and Anko were sitting on the couch it was early in the day. Naruto yawned and was starting to doze back off.

"Don't go back to sleep, Naruto. We are going to the Inuzuka compound today to help out with the vet. I promised my friend Hana" Anko spoke from across the living room even though she had just stifled a yawn herself. However, Naruto was now wide awake.

"Did you say Inuzuka?" he asked hesitantly.

Anko looked at him strangely "Yeah. They own one the only animal hospitals in the village."

Naruto's heart clenched in sadness, "Are they the ones with the marking on their face?"

Anko's face became a fierce narrow-eyed glare; she had thought that the Inuzuka clan were one of the more supporting clan when it came to Naruto. Perhaps she was wrong, "Yes Naruto. Do they have a problem with you? If they do I can cancel with Hana."

Naruto shook his head vigorously. It was quite the opposite with that clan, not that he was ready to talk about that with Anko yet. Hell, he wasn't ready to talk with anyone about it yet because it was a door he would rather leave closed. He grimace as he thought, 'It might be opened today whether I'm ready for it or not.'

The blonde boy let his face drop into a look of indifference as he answered,"No I'm good. We can go." But inwardly wounds had been reopened and he thought, '_Kaa-san…_' Maybe he would finally get his answers. And so they headed to the Inuzuka compound. Memories flashed to Naruto's mind.

**[Flashback no Jutsu]**

A three year old Naruto was sitting alone on a swing in the park. He usually spent his time inside the orphanage but today it was nice outside so he decided to go outside. He would have played but he had no one to play with. All the other children avoided him so he just sat in his swing and enjoyed the sun and the warm breeze until he heard voices coming towards him.

"Who is that boy, Kaa-san? Why is all alone and not playing?" A young Inuzuka Kiba asked his mother, Inuzuka Tsume. He was also three years old but older than Naruto by three months.

Tsume along with her partner, Kuromaru, looked towards the boy, "I don't know Kiba-chan. Why don't you go ask him to play? He seems lonely."

"Ok, Kaa-san," he rushed over to the small blonde and introduced himself rather excitedly, startling the boy on the swing. But soon the two started up a game of tag and were laughing and smiling. Other parents looked on disapprovingly but Tsume ignored them.

"That boy is very sad and alone. He is the one isn't he," Kuromaru asked. Tsume nodded and her partner growled, "That is no way to treat a pup! Regardless of his tenant he is still part of the pack. A sealing scroll that holds a kunai is not the kunai itself."

Tsume and the rest of her clan thought along the same lines but had done nothing as of yet. The matriarch sighed, "I know Kuromaru. But there isn't much we can do. The rest of the village does not think like the Inuzuka. But maybe we could at least be there for the pup." They watched the two boys play for a few hours.

Tsume tensed when she saw one of the older kids in the park push Kiba down and start to make fun of the markings on his face. Kuromaru was about to go scare the other boy off when Naruto did something unexpected.

Naruto, who was angry that his new friend was being picked on, screamed, "Hey! Leave him alone you big bully!" And with that said Naruto kicked the older boy in the shin…hard. The older boy fell down and clutched his leg as Naruto helped Kiba up and they began running back to Kiba's mother.

Kuromaru growled with approval, "I like him, Tsume. He has a pack mentality. He would make a fine Inuzuka wouldn't you say?" Tsume smirked at the subtle hint that her partner gave.

"We'll see, Kuromaru. We'll see." Tsume said quietly as the two boys approached.

Kiba looked sad, "Do we have to go now Kaa-san? I was having fun with Naruto-chan." Tsume smirked. The two were already close. Naruto looked even more downcast because he had to go back to the orphanage.

"Yes, we have to go, Kiba-chan," Tsume said. Kiba nodded solemnly and said goodbye to Naruto who looked to be on the verge of tears. Tsume knelt before the little blonde boy and smiled motherly, "Don't cry Naruto-chan. We'll be back. Probably tomorrow or the day after that. But from now one we'll come get you from the orphanage." Naruto smiled and nodded.

"Kuromaru, can you carry Naruto-chan back to the orphanage?" Tsume asked while looking at a few older Academy students that were eyeing Naruto angrily. They must have been the siblings or friends of the boy that Naruto kicked.

Kuromaru growled "Gladly. Get on Naru-pup." Kuromaru lowered himself to the ground and Naruto climbed on. Kuromaru glanced at the kids and bared his large teeth before trotting off towards Naruto's temporary home. Tsume smiled and began to walk back towards the clan compound with Kiba.

Over the next year Kiba and Naruto became close and inseparable as brothers, although they did fight on occasion. One afternoon, Naruto asked Tsume if he could also call her 'Kaa-san' in front of the whole clan. He didn't know who Tsume was exactly or how important she was. He just wanted someone who would love him and be there for him like the kids he had seen get adopted. But they were surprised when she said yes and some of the female members of the clan had hearts in their eyes because of how cute the scene was. But they didn't stay surprised for long because they all liked the blonde haired boy. He was part of the Inuzuka pack in all but blood. Tsume had come to love Naruto like a second son and had made the decision to adopt him and the rest of the clan was all for it.

Tsume, Kuromaru, Hana, and Kiba were all walking to the orphanage to tell Naruto the good news and to get the paperwork done.

She told her children to stay outside while she went inside and got Naruto.

She walked into the office and spoke to the woman who ran all the adoptions and smiled "Hey Kiyla. Can I get Naruto's paperwork? I've finally decided."

Kiyla looked to be on the verge of tears. She liked Naruto and had hoped to see him adopted. But sadly, it was not to be. "I-I'm sorry Tsume-sama. But I can't"

This answer bewildered Tsume, "Why?"

"Because his paperwork and files have been marked off limits and he was taken off the list of children that are allowed to be adopted," Kiyla was openly crying now.

Tsume snarled, "What?! By who?!"

"By me," said a woman with pink hair, Akemi Haruno. Said Haruno was smirking victoriously. She was always outspoken against Naruto whenever his name came up during council meetings.

"You banshee! What gives you the right to do that?!" growled Tsume.

Akemi laughed, "I am the proprietor of the orphanage. I have every right to stop that thing from being adopted. I also have every right to put a restraining order on you and your clan. Neither you nor anyone from the Inuzuka clan is allowed to approach Uzumaki Naruto for as long as he is a ward of this orphanage."

Tsume felt as if someone was taking their claws to her chest. 'It can't be true,' she thought. Naruto was her son regardless of what was on the paper. "You can't do this. Please don't do this to us. Please. He looks to me as his mother and I love him as my son!"

Akemi grinned, "That boy isn't your son. And never will be if I have anything to say about it. Now get off my property you mutt."

Tsume screamed in rage as she stormed out, "This isn't over Haruno! I'm going to the Hokage!"

Akemi just chuckled.

Inuzuka Hana watched as her mother stormed out of the orphanage "Kaa-san, what's wrong? And where is Naru-chan?"

Tsume just growled to Kuromaru, who had heard most of what was said and was already itching to tear the pink haired sluts face off, "Kuro! Go home and take Kiba and Hana with you while I go see the Hokage. Hopefully I'll be back with Naruto." Her partner nodded and nudged the two pups back to the compound. Kiba protested and wanted to know where his brother was.

A few minutes later Tsume slammed open the door to Hiruzen's office and slapped the restraining order down on his desk, "Hokage-sama. Fix it!"

Sarutobi sighed as he had known this was coming. It was an unfortunate turn of events but he literally couldn't help what had happened and he felt for the distraught mother. But he also had other things to do, "I can't fix it Tsume. It was decided in the council"

"Then why wasn't I there!?" Tsume asked heatedly.

"None of the clan heads were there. It was a civilian matter. Civilians are allowed to place restraining orders against ninja. I couldn't change it even if I wanted to. It was a unanimous decision by the civilian council," Sarutobi explained in a calm voice.

Tsume shook her head in denial and her eyes were leaking tear "No. They can't."

Hiruzen felt for the Inuzuka Matriarch. Naruto was just as much her child as Kiba and Hana. The only problem was that she didn't give birth to him. "Im sorry Tsume. But there is nothing I can do. I hold a lot of power but almost none of resides in civilian matters. If it matters, if Naruto ever leaves the orphanage then the restraining order will be null and void and you can adopt him into your clan through me"

Tsume was still crying but she nodded, "Will you tell me if he ever does leave?"

"You will be the first to know."

With that Tsume left and wiped her eyes as she made her way back to the compound. When she entered Akio came up to her. He was a member on the Inuzuka council and was very fond of Naruto.

"Tsume what happened. When Kuromaru came home with the children without you I started to worry. All he said was that there were complications at the orphanage. Where is little Naruto-chan?" Tsume didn't answer him and just handed him the restraining order.

She looked at him as he read, "I've already been to the Hokage. He can't do anything. I'll go tell Kiba and Hana. Spread word around that Uzumaki Naruto is off limits." Akio gaped at the piece of paper before he snarled with outrage.

Tsume found her other children on the couch waiting for her and she went and knelt in front of them. She was crying again.

Hana asked again what was wrong and Tsume sniffed, "We won't be able to see Naru-chan for a while. A long time probably."

"Why not Kaa-san?" asked Kiba.

"A-A mean lady didn't like us or Naruto so she made against the rules for us to see him as long as he is in the orphanage," the depressed mother explained in a shakey voice.

Kiba didn't see the problem and voiced his thoughts, "Then why doesn't Naruto-chan just leave and come here on his own? He should be able to make it as long he doesn't talk to strangers or take a wrong turn."

Tsume almost smiled at her son's innocent thoughts but they seemed to claw at her heart. She knew that Kiba would be lost for awhile without Naruto and she would be almost useless in making him feel better. But she swallowed the lump in her throat and smiled sadly, "He can't leave, Kiba. He has to be older or a ninja before he can leave. We won't be seeing him for a while." The tears came back with a vengeance as she thought about how long it would be, 'What if he forgets about us? Or hates me for leaving? I think that would hurt more.'

Kiba started to cry. He didn't quite understand but he did understand that he wouldn't be seeing his brother for a long time. Hana knew the same thing and Tsume pulled them into a hug as she started to sob.

Poor Naruto had no one to comfort him. He had heard his Kaa-san's voice earlier in the day but he wasn't allowed to go down stairs so he watched them leave from the window. He was confused about why they left without getting him so he decided to wait. But they didn't come back that day. So he went to sleep.

And that's how little Naruto-chan spent the next few months. He would wake up, eat, and then look out the window and wait for his Kaa-san, sister, and brother. But they never came and with each day that passed Naruto started to realize that they never would. The little blonde boy slowly fell into a depression and he was too young to understand what happened. Did his Kaa-san not love him anymore? Did he do something wrong? He never found the answer and there was no one who could explain it to him because Kiyla was fired soon after the day his family left.

**[Flashback no Jutsu end]**

Naruto snapped from his memories when he heard Anko's voice.

"Gaki? You ok?" she asked. He had this sad, lost look on his face and it didn't sit well with her.

He pulled his hood up so it covered his hair and shadowed his face. The trench coat masked his scent so hopefully no one would recognize him until he could find the woman he used to call mother. He had to have his answers.

He nodded to her, "I'm fine let's go." She nodded skeptically; she knew something was wrong because he only pulled his hood up when they were doing stealth training. Then they entered and made their way to the Animal Hospital. Naruto kept his head down.

When they entered heads turned towards them instantly and Anko waved to her friend.

"Hey, Hana-chan! I'm here just like I said I would be" she said getting Hana's attention. Naruto's breath hitched in his throat as he saw his sister, or used to be his sister. He made himself unnoticeable behind Anko.

Hana smiled and waved them behind the sign in counter and towards the back, "Hey Anko. Thanks for coming we really need the help. Just wait until Kaa-san gets here and she'll tell you where you're needed." Anko nodded and the two kunoichi started chatting completely ignoring Naruto. Said boy was just waiting. Or he was until he heard footsteps coming from behind the door to the check-up and operating room. When he glanced through the small rectangular window he saw her. There she was. And it caused him no small amount of pain to see her. He was so lost. The tears came slowly at first but soon his shoulders were shaking with the effort of holding back sobs. Anko noticed this and was about to say something when Tsume opened the doors and walked out. She saw Anko and smiled. She liked the girl.

"Hey Anko-chan. Thanks for coming. We need help unloading supplies and a lot of other things," Tsume said with a grin. Naruto's shoulders shook even harder. It felt so good but also hurt so much to hear her voice.

Anko nodded and smiled. "You're welcome Tsume-sama"

But then Hana and Tsume both noticed Naruto. Tsume asked first, "Anko-chan? Who is the pup you have with you?"

Anko grinned and turned her attention back to Naruto, "Oh, him? This little dude has been my charge for about the last year and eleven months. His name is Uzumaki Naruto."

That's when the whole Hospital went silent. Inuzuka members froze and turned their heads towards Naruto who was now just barely keeping the sobs back but you could clearly see tears dropping from the shadow of his hood onto the tile floor.

Tsume looked like she was about to cry herself. Normally she would question whether or not it was actually him but she knew that it was. A mother knows these things; especially when it comes to their children. But Hana wasn't so sure. She reached over and pulled his hood off. And sure enough a mop of blonde hair sprung from its confines. Her breath hitched in her throat.

Naruto slowly looked up and locked eyes with his mother and Tsume felt her heart clench. Those eyes had so much pain, confusion, and even a little bit of anger.

Naruto was holding back the flood and his voice shook and cracked with the effort, "Y-y-you left me th-there that day…"

Tsume snapped forward and grabbed Naruto's shoulder and they both disappeared in a poof of smoke. The Inuzuka matriarch had shunshined Naruto and herself back to her house. Hana did the same with Anko. They all appeared in the living room and Naruto let all his pent up emotions out. He tried to think clearly but the reality of things kept entering his mind and filling it with anger, 'She LEFT me! And she isn't explaining WHY! Why isn't she talking?!' But he had too many emotions to stay on one for long and it showed when he finally spoke.

He growled out in anger at first, "WHY?! Why didn't you come back?!" Hana tried to say something in her mother's defense but her voice died in her throat as her brother broke down and fell to his knees started sobbing, "W-w-was it me? Did I d-d-do something wr-wr-wrong? Is it because the villagers are right? Am I a d-d-demon? What did I do?! I swear I'll fix it. I'll, I'll-"

He didn't say anymore because Tsume ran forward fell to her knees in front of and pulled him to her chest. She couldn't believe it. He didn't hate or blame her. He blamed himself. What had happened to her son that made him think that it was okay to believe that he was the problem? How could he think those things about himself. But then she realized that without anyone to tell him different, those things could have wormed their way into his brain.

Tsume spoke to him quickly to set him straight. However, her voice was also shaky, "No, Naruto! You didn't do anything. W-we were told that weren't allowed to see you anymore and we had to stay away. We wanted you to take you with us, pup. But we couldn't. I tried so hard…"

Naruto looked up at her with anger and hurt set on his face, "But why?! Why would they do that?! Why do they hate me?!" He still needed his answers. He now knew why his mother never came back but he didn't know why she was made to leave in the first place. He looked defeated and it showed in his voice, "I...I never did anything wrong..." With those words said Naruto slumped into Tsume's embrace and let his tired and confused mind slip into unconsciousness. Tsume smiled but the reunion felt bittersweet. She had missed a good part of her pup's life and she planned on making up for it. She picked him up and sat on the couch as she cradled him close to her chest. She felt as if the missing puzzle piece had finally been placed.

Anko for her part was just confused and she voiced it, "I'm gonna come out and say that was possibly the saddest reunions I've ever seen and Kurenai made me watch tear-jerking movies that even I couldn't laugh at. But I don't get it. Where do you know Naruto from?"

Tsume chuckled at the first part and then began explaining what had happened.

"And he said that he would tell us if he ever left the orphanage" Tsume finished.

Anko was fuming on the inside, 'That old bastard! Dammit. You are one of my favorite people Old Man but you fucked up big time.' She looked at the mother and son duo and sighed, "I believe I just lost a little respect for our Hokage." However, as guilty as the thought made her, part of her was glad that the Hokage never told Tsume because if he had then she might not have ever met Naruto.

"Why is that?" Hana asked cautiously. She suspected what the snake user was about to say and the thought did not make her happy.

"I don't know how to say this...but the Hokage didn't keep his promise," Anko said sheepishly. Tsume snapped her head up with a look of righteous fury on her face. That look did not bode well for a certain perverted old man.

Tsume growled and grabbed Anko's collar, "How long, Anko?"

Anko swallowed nervously, "Naruto left the orphanage when he was five and lived on his own in an apartment until he was eight. That when the Hokage gave me the mission to train Naruto and he came to live with me." Tsume's eyes became shadowed and a dark aura began leaking from her body. Anko began to sweat but for some reason Naruto was seemingly unaffected and kept sleeping. Hana, on the other hand, just tensed up and reached out to touch her mother's shoulder. When Tsume looked at her, she pointed at Naruto and gestured for her to calm down.

Tsume dropped Anko and fell back to sit on the couch. She pulled Naruto's head into her lap and kept running her hand over his hair to keep herself calm. She nodded and then smiled.

"At least he is here now and he can become an Inuzuka. Since he is no longer a ward of the orphanage then we can adopt him into the clan without having to go to the Hokage," Tsume said with a smirk.

Anko smiled but you could see the sadness in her eyes and Tsume caught it.

Tsume smirked, "You care for him don'cha, Anko-chan?" Anko looked up in surprise before nodding.

"Yeah, the gaki grew on me. He was a blast to have around and the apartment won't feel the same without him there" Anko said with a sad smile.

Hana decided to speak up, "Well you could always come live here, Anko. That way you won't have to be away from Naruto and you wouldn't have to pay rent."

Anko shook her head, "That's a nice thought, Hana, but I don't think it would work for me. I'm kinda a loner. You know that. It would be weird. Although, I might visit more often..." Her eyes widened when she realized what she said. Tsume smirked and muttered something that sounded suspiciously like 'cradle-robber'.

Hana laughed and then scolded her mother "Kaa-san! Anko doesn't think like that. Right Anko?"

Anko just went silent and decided the best choice of action, "No comment" Tsume chuckled and thought to herself 'I can't wait for my little yellow and purple haired grandbabies.'_  
_

Naruto started to stir just as Kiba, Akamaru, and Kuromaru walked through the front door.

"Hey, Kaa-san! We're back. Kuromaru made us train really hard today, He's a damn slave driver. OW!" Kiba yelled until he was bitten by said slave driver.

Hana yelled to him with a smile as Naruto sat up, "Kiba! We in the living room. We have guests."

When Kiba walked in the room with his mother's partner the first thing he noticed was a familiar mop of blonde hair but he couldn't place it. Then Kuromaru spoke up "So you finally came back to the pack, huh, pup?"

"Naruto? Is that you?" Kiba couldn't believe his eyes. He really hoped that it was him. He had been a quite child for the better part of two years after his brother had been forcefully removed from his life.

Naruto smirked and got off the couch and Tsume grinned, "Did you forget about me so soon, Kiba? That hurts, you know?" Kiba grinned and walked across the room before enveloping his surrogate sibling in a bro hug which Naruto returned fully. Naruto had missed Kiba equally as much as Kiba had missed him.

Hana huffed and mumbled to herself, "I've been here for like twenty minutes and Kiba walks in and instantly gets a hug?" Kiba stepped away from Naruto and grinned at her.

"Well you know what they say, sis. Bros before ho's," Kiba laughed until Hana's fist slammed into his face and sent him flying into the wall which he slid down comically. A bruise was rapidly forming over his left eye.

Naruto shook his head in disapproval, "You were standing to close, Kiba. If you are going say stuff like that you know you have to have a person between yourself and her. You don't have the cuteness factor anymore. She can actually hit you without feeling bad."

Tsume sighed "Naruto give you sister a hug and Kiba apologize." Naruto smiled and gave Hana a big hug as Kiba got up.

"I'm sorry, Hana. You aren't a ho." Kiba said.

It was quiet for a second before Naruto added with a smirk "You're absolutely correct, Kiba. She's a slut" Hana's fist flashed out so fast that Naruto ALMOST wasn't able to do the Kawarimi fast enough and replace himself with his brother. Almost. And so for the second time in less than a minute Kiba found himself plastered against the wall, except this time the bruise was forming on the right eye.

"You see Kiba. That's how you properly insult a kunoichi and avoid physical harm," Naruto lectured with a smirk.

Hana grinned. "Well played, lil' bro. Well played indeed."

Kiba jumped up and growled, "Ok! I don't care if you just got back or not Fishcake, I'm gonna kick your ass!"

Naruto bristled at the 'fishcake' comment, "Bring it Kibble! But don't go crying to Kaa-san when I make you swallow your teeth!" Anko was taken aback by the way Naruto was acting. It was the same Naruto she had met but it like something was added. Or rather something was brought back. His family must have been what he was missing, Anko guessed. And just as the two boys lunged at each other Tsume jumped up and caught both her sons by the scruff of their trench coat/jacket. She hefted them in the air and started walking towards the kennels.

Kiba and Naruto started whining, "Put us down!/Kaaaaaaa-san!"

"Nope. If Naruto is gonna be an Inuzuka then he needs a partner," Tsume said with a knowing smirk.

Kiba forgot all about being carried and looked at his mother with a confused look, "But I thought all the pups have already been partnered for this litter?"

"They have. But a dog wasn't what I had in mind for Naruto," Tsume explained.

Naruto looked at her to explain and when she didn't he asked, "Then what did you have in mind?"

"You shall see"

And with that Tsume exited the house with the two boys.

Anko turned to Hana, "I've never seen Naruto like that. It took him half a year with me for him to show any personality and another half for him to do it regularly."

Hana shrugged, "It must have traumatized him emotionally when we were forced to stay away from him and with the villagers acting the way they were he probably retreated into his self to avoid getting hurt again. It's a common occurrence."

Anko nodded, "Well I like this Naruto. It's refreshing. And funny" That made Hana look at Anko.

"Have you ever thought about Naruto as more than a friend? Like not as he is now but in the future?"

Anko shrugged, "Anything is possible. We are ninja so age doesn't really matter to me. I could die to tomorrow. I guess I'll see what happens. When he is older and if he is still available then maybe I'll go for him. But I doubt he would go for a girl like me."

Hana nods, "If you ever notice that he might have developed a crush on you or someone else then please let me know."

"Why?"

"So I can tease him mercilessly about it. Why else?"

* * *

When they reached the kennels Tsume dropped Naruto and Kiba to their feet and walked over to a cage that was away from the other animals. "This is what I had in mind" Tsume stated. Inside the cage, curled up on a blanket was a fox about the size of Akamaru. Its fur was grey like the color of storm clouds and it had bluish white streak running through it. The tip of its tail was also bluish white. Tsume opened the cage and Naruto walked in and crouched down as the fox stirred.

"It is a male and about the same age as Akamaru. One of our clansmen found him on a patrol a few weeks ago. The fox was injured but he healed up quite nicely. If he takes a shine to you then we can do the bonding ritual" explained his mother.

The fox walked slowly over to Naruto and sniffed his hand a few times before it started to rub its head against it. Naruto smiled and rubbed the foxes head.

Tsume smirked "Well that's good. He likes you. That means we can do the ritual. Give him a name before we take him back in."

Naruto thought about it for a good while and then grinned, "I'll call him Raiden"

_**"That is a good name for one of my kin,"**_ a booming voice spoke in Naruto's in mind and he clutched his head and thought '_What the hell was that? Am I going crazy?_'.

Tsume put a hand on her son's shoulder and Kiba asked, "You okay, bro?" Naruto nodded and he picked up Raiden and placed the fox on his head where he settled down in Naruto's blonde hair and rested his head on his paws. Tsume and her boys returned to the house where Anko and Hana were talking about the upcoming Karaoke Night at the ninja bar that happened at the end of every month. Naruto and Kiba shared look and they nodded and mouthed "We'll guilt them into taking us."

Tsume got everyone's attention, "Naruto. Basically how this ritual works is you will push your chakra into Raiden and then you will take his chakra into yourself. When you push your chakra into him you will jump start his chakra system and also it will form a bond. When you take his chakra into yourself it will strengthen the bond and allow you to understand him and vice versa. Eventually after you have been together long enough and formed a bond like Kuromaru and I he will learn to speak."

Naruto nodded and set Raiden in the floor in front of him and sat crossed legged in front of him. Naruto held up his hand and blue chakra covered it as he looked to his mother "So I just let it flow into him, Kaa-san?" Tsume nodded. Taking a breath Naruto laid his chakra covered hand onto Raiden's head and soon the blue glow of chakra surrounded the fox's whole body and his chakra system started flowing and growing, and it grew big time with Naruto's chakra fueling it. But something unexpected happened when Naruto took his hand away.

The fur on the end on Raiden's tail stood on end and electricity started to arc around it, seemingly not hurting the fox. The electricity traveled down the tail to Raiden's body before making its way to the top of the fox's head. When it reached his head he leaned forward and touched it to Naruto's hand. The lightening increased in intensity when it traveled onto Naruto hand making the air smell like ozone before it was drawn into the blonde's chakra system.

Naruto then felt his features changing. His eyes became sharper and more angular like those of a fox and his pupils became slit. His whisker marks deepened and became more defined. His canine teeth elongated into fangs and his fingernails lengthened into sharp claws. The mop of hair on his head grew and became more feral and shaggy looking as two bangs of hair framed his face.

Kiba smirked as two blood red fanglike markings appeared on each of his brother's cheeks. They were in the center of each set of whisker marks.

Hana smiled, "Welcome to the family."

* * *

**Two weeks and a half later/ Two days before Academy starts**

Anko and Naruto walked into their apartment laughing. They hadn't moved into his mother's house yet because Anko's lease wasn't up yet. The Karaoke Night at the bar had been excellent and Naruto made quite a few new friends and fans.

"You and Kiba were awesome tonight, Naruto. You both looked so badass. How did you get your voices to sound like that?" Anko asked?

Naruto wagged his finger and hung up his trench coat and vest, "Now that would telling, Anko."

The girl groaned and whined about him being unfair and unnaturally secretive. Naruto just laughed. He walked into his room and poked his head back out to say goodnight. Then he closed his door and got ready for bed. Anko did the same. However, one out of the duo did not sleep peacefully.

In Anko's nightmare she was strapped to a table. An operating table it seemed. As she adjusted to her surroundings, she heard screaming that was coming from somewhere to her right. She looked in that direction and what she saw filled her with fear and disgust. Her old sensei, Orochimaru, was torturing someone. That's what disgusted her. It was who he was torturing that filled her with fear. It was an all too familiar blonde boy. She screamed for him to run which made her former teacher look over and smirk.

"Oooo, Naruto-kun. It seems that Anko-chan wants a show. We don't want to disappoint now do we?" the sick Snake-teme asked the boy, who was too scared to answer. Naruto locked eyes with her and seemed to beg her to help him. Then the screams started again as Orochimaru carved again and again into the boy's body with a serrated knife.

Anko screamed and struggled against her bonds but they wouldn't budge. She started cry as the puddle of blood under the boy's table steadily got larger and his screams got weaker and weaker. And then she felt her heart break as they finally stopped; along with his breath.

And then the Anko's curse mark flared to life and she screamed out in unbearable pain as her former sensei cackled madly. And then he was leaning over her, watching as she screamed in pain, anger, and heartbreak.

He sneered, "It's time to wake up Anko-chan. See you soon." And then suddenly her bonds were gone and she had a kunai in her hand. In a flash she jumped up and stabbed the kunai gleefully into her traitorous master's throat before she jerked it viciously through the side of his neck, destroying his jugular and carotid artery. She grinned as his body slumped to the floor and she woke up.

Her vision came into focus and she was back in her room and she sighed in relief. But then she noticed that something was wrong. She had something in her hand. She looked down to see the kunai she always kept under her pillow and froze. It had blood on it. She looked to her right and there was a large amount of blood splattered across the wall. She didn't want to but she slowly looked down at the ground and what she saw made her blood run cold. There lay Naruto with a jagged slash across his neck that had a profuse amount of blood pouring from it at a rapid rate.

She instantly jumped down to him and jammed her fingers into the wound to try to staunch the bleeding. It wasn't working.

"Oh kami…Naruto! Dammit, gaki! Stay with me. NARUTO!"

* * *

**Oooooooooh, a cliffy! I tried to at least a good cliffhanger but I wrote this while sleep deprived from sickness so I wouldn't be an accurate judge. But you could by leaving a review. **

**And yes. Naruto is part of the Inuzuka clan now. I made up the whole ritual thing the best I could because neither the anime nor the manga go into how the Inuzuka understand their ninken. So in my head it made sense that they got their markings and feral appearances because they absorbed their animals chakra. Kinda like nature energy and how it can turn you to stone. And I know it seems like Naruto changed to quickly but thats just because I skipped a lot of time in this chapter. There were a lot of emotionally awkward moments for him that happened during those times that I could put into Omakes if it would make it easier to understand to the change. **

**Another reason he changed was just as Hana explained it. He was traumatized from the 'abandonment' of his family and suppressed certain emotions and closed himself off so he couldn't be hurt again. A lot of people do this after particular hard break ups or loss of a loved one.**


	4. The Fox and the Mute

**Hey! Sup, peeps? I'm sorry this chapter wasn't as long as last chapter. I hope you can forgive me but I just got Halo 4 a few days ago and it has held my attention and I could barely write. But the next one should be longer. Still looking for a beta but I will keep pumping out chapters until I find one. Time for review responses.**

**DoomMarine54: **Why do you assume that Akemi is Sakura's mom? Did no one think that maybe Sakura's mom had a sister? I will never bash a character. Except for maybe Kabuto and Orochimaru. But they kinda deserve it. And Sakura will not be the useless bitch that she is in the original part of the Anime. And Sauke will not turn into the Emo avenger douchebag. I have special plans for him.

**The Super Saiyan Fox: **Thank you for the awesome review and I agree. Those kinds of nightmares are horrible things to go through. I have had them. And Orochimaru will get his and then some.

**Gin of the Wicked Smile: **I have been debating this for a while. I don't know if I will decide to do this but I know that if I do Kurenai will not be one of the girls. She is Asuma's girl and I would not take her away from one of my favorite characters. I could work with Samui or Yugito though.

**Arcee274:** Thank you. I try my best.

** : **I'm glad you enjoy it. I also like Naru/Hina but I thought I would try to branch out before I did a bandwagon pairing.

**Snowkid: **Your review had me rolling because when I thought about it. She DID almost kill Naruto in her sleep. I think he won't be hearing the end of that for a while.

* * *

The blonde haired Jinchuriki awoke in darkness. There was a constant sound of water droplets hitting a standing puddle and the noise added to the feeling of uneasiness that he was getting. He looked around and couldn't see very far in front of himself. 'Where the hell am I,' he thought. He didn't remember much. In fact the only thing he could remember was hearing Anko scream, going to check on her, and then there was a flash of metal and a moment of blinding pain in his neck. That was when everything went dark.

As Naruto lied there, his eyes started to adjust to the darkness and he could see that he was in some sort of corridor. The walls were lined with broken pipes and spider-web cracks. It sort of looked like a sewer or underground tunnel. Soon, however, he also noticed that he was lying in about five inches of water and he quickly sat up. He looked around some more and noticed that the tunnel seemed to stretch on in both directions. Naruto's mind began to wander and he spoke to himself aloud, questioning his surroundings in a small voice, "Am I dead? If I am then where am I? I'd hate to believe that the afterlife is such a pisshole, even if I'm in Hell it should be classier than this."

The blonde realized he could either go left or right in this hallway and began debating with himself. After a couple minutes he stood up shakily and took a step to his left. The boy REALLY didn't want to go right. That way seemed colder and darker. It felt like something intelligent and evil was watching him from the dark; just waiting for Naruto to walk into its domain. So to the left it was.

As he walked, Naruto kept looking over his shoulder. He really didn't want to know what the hell was behind him. He had long left the cold half of the hallway behind but he still shivered. That feeling of being watched had left him but the blonde still felt uneasy because he didn't know what it was that had been watching him and he wasn't sure if he ever wanted to. But he stopped thinking about it when he saw a speck of light in the darkness. 'Now, I'm getting somewhere,' he thought, 'Maybe I can find out where I am.'

Soon enough the hallway widened into a huge chamber that had a giant gate splitting it in half. The bars were as thick as old trees and a tag with the kanji for 'seal' was slapped on the middle of the gate, covering the line where the two doors of the gate connected. Naruto slowly walked up the gate and placed a hand on it and whistled, "Damn. What's this keeping out?"

"**More like keeping in, gaki," **a voice said with a deep guttural chuckle. Naruto instantly took a step back and looked around.

When Naruto couldn't find the source of the voice he tilted his head in bewilderment, "The hell?'' He then froze as a giant, slit eye three times as big as himself opened and stared down at him. The eye was blood red and Naruto could tell that then creature that this eye belonged to had felt a lot of pain and had a lot of hatred. He stepped closer to the gate again and the eye jerked back and a second one opened. The creature then turned and faced him as it looked down at his person.

"**You are an interesting one, boy. Most would turn around and run. Yet you step closer. Why?"**

It was obvious to Naruto, now, that the thing was speaking to him. It would be rude to not speak back. Right?

"What…are you?" Naruto asked with a curious but guarded tone, "I can't see inside to cage. It's weird to talk to you without seeing your face."

Naruto heard a snort before the whole chamber lit up like someone turned on the light switch. The first thing he saw was reddish orange…fur? And there was a lot of it. Then the blonde giggled. And that giggle turned into a chuckle. And soon that chuckle turned into a full blown belly laugh. He fell onto his backside as he laughed. The creature soon grew a tick mark on his forehead and its right eye started twitching.

After a minute of non-stop laughing the creature got fed up. What the hell was up with this kid? So the being voiced its inner thoughts with a snarl, **"WHAT THE HELL IS SO FUNNY, GAKI!?" **

Naruto tried to stop laughing enough to answer the thing's question, "Y-y-you're a f-fox! That's AWESOME!" This answer made the giant fox blink in surprise. **'This brat is…weird,' **the kitsune thought, and he was slightly disturbed by the child's laughter.

"**Why is that…awesome?" **the fox asked. He had to admit. This was not how he thought meeting his jailer would play out. He didn't have lines planned out for this. Then again, it was better than some loudmouth, dressed in orange, screaming about rent or some shit.

Naruto smiled and walked straight through the bars and came to a stop right in front of the fox and looked up at him with eyes filled with wonder. He explained himself calmly, "Well, I have always liked foxes. My ninken partner is a fox named Raiden and my trench coat hood has a tribal fox head on it. I also have a bed spread that has a design on it of a giant fox with…nine tails…" Naruto walked around the giant kitsune to get a better look. Sure, enough the fox also had nine waving tails.

"This is either the biggest coincidence of my life, or you are a figment of my imagination that my mind conjured to cope with stress," the blonde boy said with a confused look on his face.

Kurama, for his part, was bewildered. The kid WAS weird. But Kurama's chest swelled a little with pride and thought with a sniff, **'He may be weird, but he has good taste. Very good taste.' **He then caught up to what the blonde said and huffed in indignation. He shuffled his paws around and slowly lowered himself down and curled his body around the boy somewhat. His giant head lied down right beside the boy so that his giant eye was focused on him before he spoke, "**I am neither of those things, kit. I am the great Kyuubi no Yoko. And I appreciate all the fan wear. You didn't have to.**"

Naruto froze at those words. 'What? That makes no sense. Where the Hell AM I!?' he thought. He turned to the self-proclaimed Kyuubi and whispered softly but the fox was bound to hear him, "Where am I?"

Kurama heard the whisper and looked around the room before speaking in a softer voice, "**I guess you could say we are in your mind. Or rather in your mindscape. I'm no expert on it. All I've seen are these four walls and that seal.**"

Naruto nodded and then looked up, "Ok. But how does that explain you? And did you say seal?"

"**That's a little more difficult to explain," **Kurama started. He looked down at Naruto and examined him carefully as he continued, "**Im not even sure how I got here. Although, I have an idea but I have no proof. So I'll give you the abridged version. I went on a rampage. Apparently attacking the village was a BIIIG nono. Your Yondaime felt the need to correct me on my mistake and we had a little scuffle and in the end he ended up summoning the Shikigami. Those two double teamed me and sealed my ass inside a baby. Can you believe that? A baby. Disgraceful."**

Naruto caught on quickly and believed the fox. Why shouldn't he? The story that books told were always a little sketchy. First off, how can one man kill a beast that is supposedly just a giant construct of chakra that's not technically alive in the first place? Secondly, even if the Yondaime did have some super god move that COULD kill a Bijuu then how come he never shared it? Even if it was a move that only he could perform someone would have tried to replicate it.

But then another thing came to mind as he figured it out and he sat down and leaned back against the fox's cheek, surprising the kitsune again. '**This kit has balls of steel. Maybe being sealed in him won't be so bad. He'll at least provide decent entertainment.' **The fox thought.

"I'm the baby, aren't I?" Naruto questioned solemnly.

Kurama looked down and nudged the kit, "**Yes. You are. I am stuck inside of you. I am the prisoner to your jail, the tenant to your apartment. I am the pickles to your jar, the peanut butter to your jell-"**

"I get it, you damn fox!" Naruto yelled up at Kurama in annoyance. The kitsune was being excessive.

Kurama smirked as he thought, '**Yep. Definitely gonna be interesting when he's around. He is good with surprises. But knowing what he has been through…'**

Naruto sighed and leaned back again, "So. Not that I'm complaining, but why am I here?"

Kurama chuckled and shrugged his giant shoulders, "**Beats me. This is your mindscape and I'm pretty** **sure that you can't access it while you are awake. So, you must either be asleep or knocked the fuck out?**"

The blonde boy made an 'ah' sound as he nodded in understanding. 'Hmmm. That must mean that I must have lost consciousness after Anko did whatever she did,' Naruto thought.

He then thought about something and decided to ask Kyuubi about it, "Hey, Kyu? Is it possible for me to use any of your power? Because, that would be pretty cool. Of course I would ask first. But the question remains; is it even possible?"

Kurama glanced down at Naruto in surprise. He'd been expecting the subject of his power to come up but he had also been expecting his jailer to command him to give him his chakra, not ask for it and politely at that. Maybe he could finely let someone know his name. Maybe he could finally be remembered as something other than a raging beast. Maybe…

The fox pushed those thoughts away to the back of his mind. He could worry about that as he got to know the boy. No reason to jump the gun and be a complete hate filled douche bag, now was there? He noticed that the boy was still waiting for an answer and he obliged in a careful tone, "**Well, it is possible. That's why there are Jinchuriki in the first place. They could have sealed me in some extremely large vase. Especially because the Yondaime was an accomplished seal master. But why would they waste my all-powerful ass on a vase when they could create a rapidly healing, smart, chakra powerhouse that could level forests?" **

Naruto's gaze became steely, "So they mean to turn me into a weapon? With no choice?"

"**It's a possibility. That's what happens to a lot of Jinchuriki. And most of them are treated like dogs and insects. Which isn't too smart if you ask me. I mean really, it can't be a good idea to anger the container of an extremely angry and powerful chakra entity. That's just asking for a good village destroying," **Kurama answered in an amused voice before he went on, "**But back to your original question. It is possible for you to use my chakra. Normally it would be too corrosive and harmful for your body to handle. However, my chakra has been leaking into your chakra circulatory system, since the day you were born, at a very small pace. This has made your body change and build up a resistance to it."**

Naruto nodded slightly and was about to continue to ask questions, but Kurama cut him off because the fox wasn't finished.

"**But there is a risk to using any Bijuu's chakra. Our emotions and intentions are channeled through our chakra. And I won't lie. A lot of people would lose control or go mad from being exposed to that much raw hate and anger. 'Or horniness if you are the Jinchuriki of a certain cat'," **the Kyuubi said, though he thought the last part to himself.

"**However, the Bijuu can help his or her Jinchuriki with controlling their power if they are cooperative. But to my knowledge there has never been a case like that. Then again I have been locked away for the last ten years. So I wouldn't know if anything has changed," **Kurama finished with a grin. This is where the boy would make or break his first impression.

Naruto went silent for a few minutes before mumbling something.

"**I'm sorry what was that, kit?" **the Kyuubi asked.

Naruto looked up at the fox with a smile, "How would you like to be the first? We could be a team you know. I need to prove that I'm not a nuisance and that I can be useful to the village. And you may not say it but you have a lot of baggage as well. I don't know what happened to you but I will do my best to help you. You scratch my back and I'll scratch yours. It would be a good partnership."

Kurama inwardly grinned. The kid had a good heart. Maybe that could work. If anything it should prove funny as hell.

"**That…actually sounds pretty good kit. So sure. I'll help you out. But first, I need you to do something and I'll have to ask you to trust me."**

Naruto looked at the fox questioningly. 'This could be a trick. He might just want to get free and go destroy things some more,' the blonde haired boy thought with a frown, 'No. I have to trust him. If I thought like that then I'd be just like the villagers. And if I do die and he does escape. I'd rather die knowing I gave him a chance and the benefit of the doubt.'

"What do you need me to do?"

"**I need to you to tear the seal," **Kurama said with a placating tone. He quickly continued before Naruto could protest, "**Not a lot, just a little tear in the corner. It will let my chakra flow into you at a much faster rate and help you control it better. It will cause some physical changes though. Nothing serious."**

Naruto nodded hesitantly before asking, "What kind of changes are we talking about? I draw the line at tails and fox ears." At that, Kurama chuckled.

"**Basic things, really. It will increase your bone and muscle density and possible change your pheromone output." Kurama **explained while giggling perversely at the last one, which sounded weird coming from the giant fox. '**The kit has no idea what that means. I'm sure he'll know soon,' **the Kyuubi thought.

Naruto nodded before standing and walking back out of the cage. He looked up at the seal before he started floating up to the piece of paper. He reached out for it before pausing and looking at the fox. He grinned sheepishly before speaking in a nervous tone, "Is this gonna hurt?"

Kurama grinned widely before nodding, "**Oh, yeah. Like a bitch."**

Naruto just shrugged and thought, 'Well Anko always says "No pain, no gain" I guess I better nut up or shut up'. And with that he reached out and grasped the corner of the seal before ripping a large chunk of it off.

Kurama's eyes widened, "**Kit. That was a bit larger than I anticipated. I don't even know what will happen now."**

The blonde haired boy looked over himself and chuckled, "I think its ok. It didn't even hur-."

And that's when his mind went dark in a maelstrom of pain.

* * *

Inuzuka Hana had been having a shitty day; problems at work and little brothers making up the majority of her annoyances. Kiba had come home from the Academy raising hell again. Apparently that Sasuke kid had whooped his ass in a spar again. Hana scoffed and thought, 'He almost got worse at the hands of Kaa-san.' The Inuzuka siblings' mother had been on edge and cranky for…obvious reasons and she lashed out at people from time to time.

But that was where Hana was going now. She had decided to go see her brother. She left the Triplets at home because the hospital didn't allow animals, ninken or not.

When Hana got to the hospital she walked up to the receptionist and spoke gently, "I'm here to see Naruto."

The receptionists gaze softened. It was an unfortunate thing that had happened to the little blonde boy. She smiled, "Oh. Okay, Hana. Go right on up." Hana nodded and began walking up the stairs.

When she reached the third floor, she began walking to her brother's room. Why did he always have to get into these situations? Even when he was little it was like he attracted dangerous situations. Hana chuckled a little as she reminisced in her fond memories.

She was jerked from her reverie by the sound of frantic yelling and panicking. She snapped her head to the direction it was coming from and gasped. A couple of medic nin ran into her brother's hospital room. What she heard next stopped her heart.

"HOLD HIM DOWN!"

"I'm TRYING!"

"His vitals are falling rapidly. Heartbeat has increased to dangerous levels!"

"SEDATE Pump in as much as needed!"

Hana sprinted to the room and burst inside with a frantic look on her face and yelled in an equally frantic voice, "What's going on?! What is wrong with him?" Her brother features were contorted in pain and her body was flushed red. She could see his muscles rapidly tensing and relaxing in spasms.

The head Medic Nin looked at her with a frown, "We aren't sure. He started this about five minutes ago and it's only escalated. IT seems to be some sort of seizure but his temperature is off the charts and approaching lethal levels. His heartbeat is also irregular. It's as if all his muscles are overactive and sporadic."

Hana understood most of what said but only one thing was on his mind, "Will he live?"

"Hai. He should stabilize as long as we can calm him down with some sedatives. They seem to be working. But he still appears to be in pain."

And the doctor's word rung true and Naruto stopped thrashing. But his body stayed flush. In fact the redness seemed to deepen. His unconscious body was sweating profusely, trying to cool itself off to no avail. Hana moved closer to the bed and grasped her brother's hand. She leaned in close to his ear and began cooing to him gently. It seemed to work and his features relaxed a little but he was still obviously in pain. The doctor allowed himself a chuckle, which got Hana to level a glare so fierce at him that he would have melted instantly if looks could kill.

He held his hands up in placating manner and spoke with a small smile, "I was just thinking about how ironic this was. Right before he started doing whatever he is now, he was showing the most brain activity he had in months. I was just wondering if it was connected."

Hana, despite the dire situation, felt herself filling with hope. Maybe he would wake up today or sometime soon. But then she sighed and sat down in a chair beside Naruto's bed. She looked back up at the medic.

"Can you send someone to get my mother? I don't really want to leave him right now. "

"Ahh. Yes, I believe I can do that. I hope he wakes up. But I wouldn't trust a hope." And with those solemn words he and the other medical personnel left Hana alone with her comatose brother.

After a while Tsume showed up and Hana explained what had happened. They didn't speak after that and just waited in a comfortable silence. Naruto had since calmed down and was blissfully unconscious again. But the mother and daughter duo believed that he would wake soon.

* * *

The next morning found the two women soundly sleeping in their separate chairs next to the hospital bed. But as they slept, a certain blonde child was waking up.

Naruto let out a little groan as his eyes fluttered open.

He covered them with his right hand, expecting it to be bright. But he was pleasantly surprised when found the window in the hospital room covered with a blanket. He smiled. Then he noticed his sister and mother sleeping on either side of him.

"Hey Kaa-san, Onee-chan," Naruto said. Or at least, he tried to say. His words came out a gargled hiss and his throat erupted in pain. He tried to speak again with the same results except this time the pain in his throat brought tears to his eyes. 'What's wrong with my throat? Why can't I talk!?' he asked himself mentally.

However, that was the least of his worries. His mother had heard the strange sound and sat up. When she laid eyes on her son and found him sitting up and looking back she shrieked, which in turn woke up Hana.

Naruto just sat patiently and waited for their shock to wear off because he was mighty confused.

"Naruto? You're awake!" yelled Hana right before she jumped up and started trying her best to squeeze the life out of the poor boy. 'Can't…breathe…' he thought as his face started to turn blue.

"Hana!" Tsume barked at her daughter, "Let him go. I think you're killing him." Hana looked down at Naruto and squeaked a little as she dropped him.

The blonde haired boy looked up at the two in confusion. They both looked extremely happy that he was awake. Why were they so happy? Wasn't he just unconscious from whatever Anko did. He was bound to wake up anyway. It wasn't that surprising. Unless…

Unless he had been asleep for far longer than he had originally thought. And that was a notion that had him apprehensive. He looked at his mother questioningly and pleadingly.

Tsume saw the look and kept waiting for him to say something. But after a while a look of horror spread across her face, "You can't talk...can you?"

Naruto felt his eyes water and he shook his head sadly.

"Oh, no. The medic nin said that this might happen, but they hoped that they had fixed it." Tsume said with a look of concern on her face. Naruto pointed to his throat and made an asking gesture.

Tsume frowned, "When the accident happened your vocal cords were badly damaged. They were able to heal them a little but the vocal cords are very delicate and none of them were skilled enough to risk trying to do anymore to them."

Naruto nodded in understanding but on the inside he was worried. Didn't you have to say the name of your jutsu? Not being able to talk would affect his whole life. But he could deal with that later. Right now he just wanted to know what happened.

"I'm guessing you want to know what went down, huh?"

Naruto nodded.

Tsume sighed. This would take a while.

**[Flashback no Jutsu]**

Anko was crying now. She shakily put her hands together in the correct sign and made a shadow clone. Both the clone and herself were covered in Naruto's blood.

"TAKE HIM TO THE HOSPITAL!" she screamed frantically, "AND IF THEY TRY TO STOP YOU, KILL THEM!"

The clone nodded and picked up the boy and leapt out the window, breaking it. Anko jumped out of the same window and made a beeline towards the Inuzuka compound. She ran straight to the Matriarch's house and busted down the door.

She was so scared. Not only from the aftershock of the nightmare but from the thought that she might have killed one of the only people that was close to her heart. She shrieked, "TSUME!"

A few moments later the whole family came flying down the stairs and Tsume rushed forward and grabbed Anko, who was trembling, by the shoulders. She saw that she was covered in blood.

"Anko! Whats wrong?!" the Inuzuka Matriarch asked in a startled tone.

Anko was in hysterics," I-I-It was an a-a-accident. I-I didn't mean to!" This had Tsume worried. She shook Anko roughly.

"You have to calm down, Anko! What happened?!" Tsume shouted.

Anko tried to calm down but she couldn't stop shaking, "I w-was having a nightmare. I th-think Naruto heard me screaming. He came in m-my room and I always have a kunai under my pillow. And wh-when he w-went to wake me, I-I…" Anko couldn't say anymore and she fell to her knees and stared at her blood stained hands.

Tsume and her children froze up and Kiba stares down at Anko before asking.

"Where is my brother now, Anko-san?"

Anko spoke in a voice so small that Kiba almost didn't hear it, "I made a clone to take him to the hospital…" Kiba took off so fast that he was basically a blur. Hana followed quickly. Tsume bent down next to Anko and took her hands in her own.

"It's okay, Anko-chan. It was an accident. He'll be fine," Tsume wasn't sure she believed what she was saying but the girl needed to hear it. Anko just shook her head and started sobbing. Tsume took the girl into her arms. She trusted Hana to handle things while she wasn't there.

**[Flashback no Jutsu end]**

"And you were in a bad way for a couple days. Your heart stopped a total of four times and you fell into a coma. While you were bleeding out your brain wasn't able to get enough oxygen and it did some damage." Tsume finished the story with a frown. She had been on edge a week and had barely slept.

Naruto was in shock. Not because of what Anko did. That was infinitely excusable. It wasn't her fault. But she had been blaming herself and that was completely unacceptable. He reached over to the medical chart beside his bed and grabbed a pen and paper. He started writing, '_How long have I been out?'_

Tsume read the note and frowned sadly, "You've been comatose for about two and a half years, Naruto." Naruto did a double take and almost dropped his pen. He quickly responded, '_How have Raiden and Anko been?'_

Naruto's mention of his partner had her smiling. At least he cared for him. Hana answered this one.

"Raiden has been training with Kiba and Akamaru in clan jutsu's. You will have to catch up after you get out. He has been anxious all the time without you. But he has been getting more excited here lately. Maybe he knew you were gonna wake up," Hana explained to which the blonde nodded. She frowned a little, "Anko…has been distant. From everyone. She barely even talks to Kurenai. She threw herself into training and her work. She is now a full Jōnin along with Kurenai."

That wasn't good. At least in Naruto's opinion. She was guilty. She was trying to cope with her emotions by working herself to death. His books explained something similar.

"_Has she visited me?" _Naruto wrote. Tsume shrugged.

"She has never visited while we were here. But sometimes when I've been here I've smelled snakes so I think she comes to see you ever once in a while." That made Naruto happy for some reason. Extremely so. He put a smile on his face and his cheeks flushed a little. Anko made him feel these weird things.

Hana noticed the small blush and groaned.

Tsume noticed it also and she smirked, "Awwww. Does Sochi have a crush on little Anko-chan?" Naruto didn't know what a crush was but his mother's tone of voice made his blush intensify. Tsume started laughing. Naruto growled deep in his chest and got up out of the bed. He shook his head in annoyance. His found the little closet and pulled on his pants and trench coat and found that they still fit him. He looked at his mother in confusion.

She grinned, "You were still growing in your coma for some reason. Sayuri stopped by and measured you every few months so when you finally woke you would have clothes that fit."

Naruto nodded. He did feel taller. And stronger. That must have been an effect of the Kyuubi's chakra. What he didn't know was that the Kyuubi's other enhancement was kicking in.

Hana froze.

She slowly got up and walked over to her brother and slowly pushed him against the wall. Naruto was rooted in place for some reason. She leaned in close and breathed in deep through her nose. She shuddered involuntarily and her skin flushed. She was about to sniff again when her mother stepped in.

"Hana! Stop," Tsume barked with authority. Hana blinked and looked down Naruto. She backed away slowly and opened the door.

She shuddered again and spoke, " I'm…I'm gonna go make sure Kiba hasn't torn apart the house. And with that she quickly left the room. Naruto looked over at Tsume in confusion. 'What was that all about?' he thought.

Tsume patted Naruto's should and stood up, "It's okay Naruto. She just needed some air." On the inside though, the Inuzuka Matriarch was apprehensive. 'His pheromone output is ridiculous. I bet that even girls without our noses could easily smell it if they were close enough. I wonder what Hana will do?' she thought.

Naruto shrugged and walked out of the hospital room with his hood up. He didn't need to check out. His mom would take care of it. Hopefully.

* * *

**Ok. I know some of you may ask yourself. Why is Kyuubi not a hate-filled mega monster? Why didn't Naruto just regenerate his vocal cords. Why isn't Haku a girl?**

**Well, this answer the first one is that I thought that Kurama could be better and more in depth character if he wasn't an asshole. And just had past problems and skeletons in his closet. **

**The second one is harder to explain. I don't really like fics that have Naruto have this grand regeneration ability because it isn't realistic. Tsunade's Creation Rebirth jutsu is proof of this. Every time she uses it her lifespan shortens. A body's cells can only split a certain amount of times in the human life. Regeneration is just a cell splitting and creating a copy of itself. So every time Naruto got severely injured in my fic and just regenerated, he would be shortening his lifespan. This limit of cell division is called the Hayflick limit. Look it up. And another reason why Kyuubi couldn't heal the vocal cords is because I said so. By my understanding and wikipedia the vocal cords are fold of muscle/flesh and other parts. I figured it would make sense that they would be very hard to repair even with chakra. Only someone of high enough medical skill *cough* Tsunade *cough* would be able to fix it. And the Kyuubi's chakra is not delicate nor precise enough for the job.**

**The third question is not explainable. At least for now.**

**I hope you enjoyed it. So drop a review and tell what I can do to fix my writing and if you liked it. Sorry if its not as good but I was distracted. *looks at Xbox***


	5. The Confrontation

**Hey guys. New chapter. I was busy with Thanksgiving and all. I don't really like the beginning of this chapter but I was quite pleased with the end. And I need to address Naruto's age and everything. I confused myself while thinking about this. But I finally, figured it out.**

**So lets break it down. Naruto entered the coma a few days before the academy started and the Academy, in my story, starts in mid-October. So he was ten at this time. He was in the coma for two and a half years. He missed the first two years of the academy and half of the third year. This means that he woke up at around the middle of April. He is now Twelve and a half. Then in this chapter it skips four months so its August. That means two months until he turns thirteen. So to make it easy for the ages. **

**Konoha Rookie Nine- 12/13 years old.**

**Anko, Kurenai, Hana- 20/21 years old.**

**Kakashi, Gai, Asuma- Late twenties/ possibly early thirties. Im lazy and don't feel like looking at Narutopedia.**

**Sannin-early fifties I think.**

**Hiruzen, Danzo, Homura, Kotaru- Old as hell.**

**Ok. Now that is done. Review responses.**

**The Super Saiyan Fox- **I am almost positive that this won't be a harem. I mostly put the Pheromane thing in because I thought it was hilarious. And the fact that Kurama did it deliberately shows some of his twisted sense of humor. He likes to see Naruto uncomfortable and will keep fucking with him. So rest assured.

**ChronoMitsurugi- **See above for the first part of your review. As for the second part. My version of Kurama is closer to what he is than what you described. He is not a 'true demon'. He does have emotions. And he doesn't think of humans as ants. What right does he have to do so? He has been defeated and sealed by these 'ants' on multiple occasions. He doesn't trust humans. I wouldn't trust them either if they forcefully controlled me and sealed me for my power. That's where all the hate and malcontent comes from. Also, for your review on chapter 2. I like Tenten but her choice of clothing has nothing to do with it. However, I also firmly believe that Anko would stomp Tenten a new mud hole because she too is a serious Kunoichi. Her choice of clothing also has nothing to do it. They are ninja. They fight dirty to get every advantage. If an enemy shinobi or high class official is distracted by a Kunoichi's body then it makes it easier for said kunoichi to put a knife in their skull. I completely see your point if you were talking about Ino but with Anko it's different. Take Fuka from the Sora arc for example. She entirely relied on seduction and getting close to her enemies so she could kiss them. Hope this clears some things up.

**3ch0- **I didn't intentionally ignore those facts. Kurama was under the control of Madara's sharingan almost the entire village attack and fight with Minato. He didn't seem to notice what he was doing so I assumed it be kinda like a black out or something for him. Also I never saw or read that only an Uzumaki can hold Kurama. The only thing I've ever heard close to that would be that only an Uzumaki could hold a Bijuu in them if they were sealed while an adult and they can survive having a Bijuu extracted. The point I was trying to make by Kurama saying that was that Minato ALONG with the Shinigami could have sealed Kurama into just about anything. Because isn't Shiki Fuin supposed to be the Mother of All Seals? If not then the Shinigami must be a little bit of a bitch. Or Kurama is just THAT badass. I know that Kurama has been sealed for a hundred years. Kurama wasn't telling the whole story. He DID say abridged version. If came out and told Naruto everything it would create far too much conflict and would probably be too much for Naruto to handle. I also am fascinated by the Uzumaki. So I wasn't ignoring their history.

**Part 2 of 3ch0-** Trust me. I won't have Naruto focus of their Techniques. That will be explained in the chapter. If you noticed I haven't outright said that Naruto even changed his name to Inuzuka. Thats because he didn't. And you are spot on in saying that he doesn't exactly fit in with them. But who says he needs too? Family is family. Even if he changed into this almost emotionless person he still loves them. And I didn't want Naruto to turn out like a Sai copy. So he had to have previous contact with emotions and family. So I hope it fits better with you now. If not then Im sorry.

**Gin of the Wicked smile- **A normal person would be freaking out if they lost two and a half years. But Naruto is far from normal. He wouldn't know how to react. Sure he would be surprised and everything but he really didn't miss anything. His family would have still been there for him. He didn't really have much of a life to miss besides Anko. And that is settled in this chapter.

** - **I can easily explain the shadow clone. That has nothing to do with splitting cells. A shadow clone is a chakra construct. Like the Bijuu. That just means that it is a shitload of chakra that has been condensed into a solid form. And I understand that he has the most powerful demon inside of him. But that doesn't make him a god. And the reason that he needed a medic nin to treat the hole in his chest and tell him to take it easy is proof that he doesn't regenerate. That would make no sense. Thats also why Tsunade tells Naruto not to use the Rasenshuriken without sage mode. Because it attacks individual cells and can fuck up the chakra coils in his arm. That wouldn't be a problem if he could regenerate. But he cant. That's the whole point I was making. Kurama can't do everything. But he can help. That is shown in this chapter.

**Dialogue Thingies.**

**"Regular speech"**

**"Bijuu/Summon speech"**

**'Bijuu/ Summon thoughts'**

**"Jutsu Names when used"**

'_Written dialogue'_

_"Raiden/ ninken speech/ Naruto speaking to Kyuubi through the mind connection"_

_"**Kurama speaking to Naruto through the mind connection"**_

**Finally! Done with that. Enjoy the chapter.**

* * *

Naruto had been…busy…the last four months. Things were difficult for him. He had barely even been at the Academy. Well, he should say he personally hadn't been to the Academy. His clone(s) had gone to school every day with Kiba and the other kids. He had learned a lot and he did reasonably well on the Academic and physical tests, but it wouldn't matter in the long run anyway. Missing two years of instructional school really takes a toll on your grades, especially when his mother had insisted on him graduating with the rest of his generation. Even if he did the best in the class every single there was a test, he would still end up being the 'dobe' of the class. Which really didn't matter to him anyway.

He was actually kind of hoping for that. He had gotten out of sparring sessions because he claimed that he was 'still recovering' from his injuries. Hell, if he could get away with it then why wouldn't he use it to his advantage? If he could hide his true potential from the important characters in the village then they would have no reason to target him. Maybe they'd even send him on better missions hoping that he would get killed. He needed the money. Also, it wouldn't hurt to surprise the other kids in his graduating class when Graduation day rolled around. He knew that Shikimaru and Sasuke were always watching him. They knew he was faking. Naruto smiled and thought, 'But they don't know why I'm faking and it annoys them.'

And it did annoy them. Naruto could tell from his clone's memories and the few times that he did show up to class himself.

But one thing he dreaded about the Academy was his fan girls. Yes. He had the most terrifying and beastly monstrosity known to famous ninja's. The beast known as fangirls. He didn't even know how the Hell he got them in first place. What in the Hell did he do? He mostly kept to himself, he didn't show off in class, and the only person his ever talked to was Kiba and Raiden via note. It was horrible. He had had heard them say that he smelled good. Weird.

And that brought him to what he was doing outside of school while his clone filled in for him. He was working on the skills he had learned before he was in a coma. The coma thing freaked him out a little by itself. But really if didn't affect him as much as it should have. Why, you ask, does missing two and a half years of his life not affect him? Well, Naruto didn't really have much of a life to begin with. He didn't have any friend or significant other that would have moved on without him there. So when he did wake up his family welcomed him back and things fell into a normal routine.

Using his clones he had gotten his chakra level back up to an acceptable level by his standards. This had been harder than he thought because apparently the influx of Kyuubi's chakra had increased his chakra reserves along with his strength. He had also relearned/mastered the few lightening and wind jutsu that he was working on. This was hard because he couldn't call out the jutsu name. But he found out that you didn't have to. Calling out the name was just a way to visualize the jutsu and help mold the chakra into the correct way and form. But he had been able to do it without that. The blonde had been trying to learn the Tsūga and the Gatsūga but they were extremely difficult for him.

When he asked his mother, she had told him that this was not unexpected. Because he was not originally from the clan he would not be able to perform their jutsu's quite so easily. And some like the Jūjin Bunshin and the Shiyaku no Jutsu, he would not be able to do at all. But he had clones dedicated to learning the two he could so that he could at least add them to his arsenal if he ever needed them. But otherwise he would stick to normal jutsu.

He had also been working with Raiden to create some sort of sign based communication system. At least until he could talk again. To do this though, Raiden had to learn the language. That had been the easy part. The little gray fox was clever and caught on quickly to what Naruto was trying to teach him. The hard part had been coming up with a conventional system of signs that he could use on the battlefield to convey his message in detail but take up as little as time as possible. In the end, the two had created a system that merged the Jōnin and ANBU hand signals with normal sign language. It took a while to get the translations and things correct but with the power of shadow clones he and Raiden had managed to get it done in just under two months.

Despite this, he still found not being able to talk…frustrating to say the least. People take their voice for granted. He could no longer convey his feeling or concerns so easily now. He couldn't scream out his anger or sadness. And crying in silence doesn't have the same relieving effect as sobbing into your pillow until you fall asleep. It takes a toll, but Naruto was determined to keep going. He could always spar with Kiba, who had become Naruto's emotional punching bag, if it gets to be too much.

Despite all this, his taijutsu had taken the largest hit by his unconsciousness. Without Anko to train with, he couldn't get back to where he was with his original fighting style. But he had got it back to a level that he could beat most of his graduating class with little to no effort. Only two people could actually challenge or beat him and they were Kiba and Sasuke. Right now it was a week before the actual graduation day and Naruto was still on the most important part of his skipping school. And that task was finding Anko. She was avoiding him.

And so Naruto found himself, for the umpteenth time this month, sneaking out of his bedroom window and replacing himself with a clone. He snuck quietly through the kennels until he felt a weight land on his head. He grinned. Raiden had taken to coming with him on his little searches, and he helped tremendously. Each time he had gone out searching with his partner he had gotten closer before she slipped away. Naruto quickly made a clone and henged it into the shape of his partner to go to school with.

Raiden yipped to him, "_Okay. We'll find her today. The crazy lady who smells like snakes cannot hide forever!_" Naruto just chuckled and exited the compound. This was it. Today was the day. He would find her and she would talk to him whether she wanted to or not.

* * *

The purple haired kunoichi in question, sneezed into her plate of dango. 'Damn. Someone must be thinking about me. That's nice. Even if it did contaminate my dango.' She thought. But she was also apprehensive. Over the past couple of months she had noticed someone was following her. She tried to figure out who it was but the person was good at covering his tracks. At least Anko thought 'it' was a 'he'. It would be weird if 'it' was a 'she'. And she was getting anxious because the person seemed to be getting closer to catching her.

But today the new Jōnin was tired of running. She would confront her stalker face to face. Maybe face to kunai if she was in a bad mood. Just she was about to finish eating her dango, a glob of sickly yellow phlegm landed on the plate, covering her dango. She froze and her head slowly turned in the direction of the man who had done the atrocious deed. He was an aging man who looked to be down on his luck. His face covered in stubble and his hair was slightly greasy and unkempt. Despite his fragile looks, Anko was trying to stop herself from hospitalizing him. The man sneered and looked calm on the outside but on the inside he was scared shitless, 'I knew I shouldn't have done that! But that blonde kid paid good money. What the Hell would he want her mad for anyway?'

The man dreaded what he had to say next so he slightly put a few more civilians in between himself and the Snake Mistress, "Say girl. Have you slit any throats lately?" At this Anko flew from her seat in the shop and away from the man as fast as she could. Angry tears slid down her cheeks as a myriad of emotions ran through her; pain, anger, shame. But the greatest one she felt was guilt. She had been trying to avoid thinking about that night. She hated herself for what happened. And that man had brought it up, or at least it seemed like he had.

She ran blindly through the streets, cutting through alley ways, on her way to her destination. She was heading back to the apartment to her apartment. She had no shoulder to cry on so her pillow would suffice. As she was turning into the last alley that lead to the street her apartment was on she slammed into something. Hard.

Hard enough that she bounced off of the object and fell on her back. 'What the Hell?!' she thought as she looked up at the obstacle that was in her way with bleary eyes. Her heart damn near stopped, however, when she saw two cerulean eyes staring back at her from under an all too familiar hood. She sputtered for a moment before gathering herself.

"Naruto? Is that you, Naruto?" Anko asked skeptically. Last time she had visited him he was still blissfully comatose. But then again that had been months ago. The guilt started to set in again at that. It became overpowering when the figure in front of her dropped the hood and a mop of blonde hair sprung into her vision.

The Snake Mistress shakily stood up and gasped. The gaki had hit puberty early. 'More like he snuck up behind and beat it with a stick. He reaches my chin now. How the hell did he grow during a coma?' she thought, somewhat chagrined. For being twelve, a couple months away from being thirteen, Naruto was tall. He stood at about 5'4" and Anko was tall also, topping off at 5'9".

Naruto nodded to her question and was desperately wishing that he could speak. He had so many things he could've said at that moment. He wanted to tell her that it was okay, that she shouldn't blame herself for what had happened. But he couldn't. So he stood in forced silence and waited for her to say something as she had gone silent as well.

Anko was the first to break the silence, "Oh Kami, Naruto! I'm so sorry! It w-was an accident I-I was so scared, Naruto. I c-couldn't tell the difference. I'm sorry! So s-s-sorry!" The Snake Mistress's voice had gotten desperate and frantic the longer she spoke. Tears threatened to spill over her eyes again as she stepped closer to the blonde boy. When Naruto didn't say anything, Anko started to cry and freak out. She needed _something _from him. Seeing the boy stare at her with those cold blue eyes was tearing her apart.

"Say something! Anything!" Anko yelled in borderline hysterics, "Tell me you forgive me! Tell me you never want to see me again! Just say something, N-Naruto. Please!"

That was too much for the young Jinchuriki and he rushed forward and threw his arms around the crying woman and held her close as he himself started to cry in frustration and sadness into her chest. He wanted to say something. But he couldn't. He had no voice. But he did have his eyes. And his body. And right then he was pouring every ounce of forgiveness he had in his soul into the embrace. He felt Anko's arms snake around his form and hug him close as she herself sobbed into his hair. She kept whispering apologies into his scalp.

The two stood in that position for a while. Long enough for the sobs and the tears to ebb away, leaving only a comfortable silence. Neither party wanted to end the embrace. It was one of those hugs that warmed your soul, made you feel safe, and left you with a smile on your face.

Anko and Naruto did indeed have smiles on their faces. Naruto's smile was because he didn't get hugs often. He had shared a few hugs like this with his adopted mother whenever she was feeling spontaneously loving. But for some reason it was different with Anko. His heart was beating strongly and he felt as if there were butterflies in his stomach. But it didn't feel unpleasant. It was actually kind of…nice.

Anko was smiling because she took it as a sign that he didn't hate her and she could feel that she'd been forgiven. But she still wished that he would talk. But for now she was content with the hug. It was…nice.

But then Anko made the mistake of inhaling a deep whiff of Naruto's hair. All of a sudden both Naruto and Anko froze; for completely different reasons.

Naruto froze because a familiar voice sounded off in his mind.

"_**Hey kit. Sorry to ruin the moment but we need to talk," **_spoke Kurama in an amused but slightly annoyed tone.

"_Kyuubi? That you?" _Naruto thought back in surprise.

"_**Yeah kit it's me. Do you know how hard it was to handle the surge of my chakra into your body? It took me three months just to make sure that the integration of my chakra into your system and body didn't kill you." **_The fox said in an exasperated tone but it quickly turned annoyed, "_**And it took another month to figure out how open this connection between our minds." **_

This surprised Naruto. So he could talk to Kyuubi without have going to that pisshole of a mindscape? 'Cool,' he thought.

"_**Damn right it's cool," **_ Kurama huffed in a pleased tone that startled Naruto.

"_You can read my thoughts?" _

"_**Well, sure. If you just think something randomly then I'll hear it. If you think about it privately it will stay private," **_the Kyuubi explained, "_**It's complicated, gaki. But you're smart. I'm sure you'll figure it out."**_

"_Eh. I'll take what I can get. It's nice to be able to talk to someone again, in any case." _Naruto spoke sadly.

"_**I'm working on that too, kit. I'm diverting a very calm and precise portion of my chakra to your throat every day. It will take a while but I should be able to heal your vocal cords partially. I can't fix them fully but you'll be able to speak quiet, simple sentences in a few months. Just don't overdo it."**_

That was excellent news. It wasn't much but it was enough. If he could hug Kyuubi without being eaten he probably would have.

"_Thanks, Kyu."_

"_**Ah. Don't mention it. Seriously don't. I would be the laughing stock of the Bijuu. I'm not nice. I'm vicious and evil. Don't you forget it," **_Kyuubi said with finality, "_**Oh. And I would pay more attention. I think you are about to be raped." **_With that said the fox went silent.

And Naruto was jerked back to reality. He didn't remember entering Anko's apartment. Or being on her couch. Or taking his trench and shirt off. But all of those things apparently had happened in the span of about two minutes that he was spaced out. But the thing that startled him the most was that Anko was all over him. Quite literally. She was holding him close to her rapidly heating body as she buried her nose into the crook of his neck.

"Ooooh Kami, Naruto. You smell so gooooood," Anko purred in needy tone. She wasn't acting coherently and couldn't get enough of his scent. Naruto for his part was frozen like a deer in headlights. He had not the slightest clue what was happening or what to do. Anko shuddered as she drew in another deep breath. Without thinking she latched onto the skin over the jagged scar on his neck with her mouth and sucked gently, eliciting a startled shudder from Naruto. It was gentle but hard enough to leave a decently sized bruise.

After a minute, Naruto recovered from his shock and did the only thing he could think of. He punched her in the leg. It was a full powered punch but it was enough to get the Snake Mistress's attention. Her eyes snapped open and she slowly pulled away from the blonde haired boy. Said boy's hand slowly reached up to cover the section of skin that Anko had been working on.

While this whole thing was taking place, the great Kyuubi no Yoko was laughing his ass off inside his cage. He would take extra care to NOT make that hickey go away. Oh no. When the kit's mother saw it, hilariousness was bound to follow.

Anko got up from the couch slowly and accessed the situation. The first thing noticed was that she was horny. Dear Kami was she horny. The second thing was that she had just molested Naruto. There was no way around it. Giving him a hickey was definitely molestation. But the third thing she noticed was that she couldn't say that she regretted it. And that was when she ran into her bathroom, stripped, and turned on the water. She was gonna take a long nice, cold shower.

Naruto, for his part, was extremely confused. He was quite sure what had just happened. All he knew was that this experience warranted a trip to either the library or the Hokage tower. 'The Hokage tower,' Naruto decided. He would write down the experience in detail and have his grandfather figure explain what the hell happened. For now he would just act normal like it didn't happen. But he thought curiously, 'She acted kinda like Hana did in the hospital except Kaa-san wasn't there to stop her.' Food for research.

He waited for about twenty minutes until he realized that he still didn't have his shirt on. That was uncool. So he spent another five minutes looking for the shirt and then another two wondering how the Hell it got onto the ceiling fan. Once he pulled on his shirt he went to look in the mirror on Anko's dresser because his neck felt tingly. He peered into the mirror and shrugged. A bruise about the size of a gumball was forming on his neck. That wasn't too bad. It would go away soon. All his bruises usually did. At least that was what he thought.

He walked back into the living room and sat on the couch and closed his eyes as he waited.

About four minutes later the bathroom door opened and Anko stepped out. She had a towel wrapped around her form. She walked into her room to get dressed. When she was fully dressed she made her way back to the living room and sat beside Naruto.

There was a tense awkward silence in the room and the Kyuubi was still laughing. It was starting to get painful but it hurt so good.

"So. I don't think there is any chance that we just forget about this incident, huh?" Anko asked sheepishly. She was sporting a 'Hinata' blush. Naruto just shook his head. He would not be forgetting this anytime soon. He would probably have dreams about it. And if not dreams then he would a beautiful nightmare.

Anko sighed in defeat, "I didn't think so. For what it's worth. I am sorry." Naruto just looked at her and gave her a sly grin. He wasn't mad. Then again he didn't know what happened either. So he was just blissfully lost.

"Can we at least agree to not mention it around your mom or sister? I think both would have equal chances of attacking me," Anko stated. Naruto nodded in the affirmative. That would be very bad idea. Anko was too young to die.

Anko was getting tired of the not talking so she voiced her concerns, "Why aren't you talking? It's getting annoying."

Naruto frowned and got up to find a pen and paper. When he found his communication supplies he trekked back to the living and sat back down. He sighed and started writing, '_Your Kunai damaged my vocal cords. I cannot speak at all right now. But it is…a work in progress. If you try to apologize I'll slap you in the ear.' _ He wanted to write that he would punch her in her throat but that was close to home and he didn't want to come off as vengeful.

Anko scoffed at his note. Bitch please. It sucked that his vocal cords were fucked up but she wasn't going to apologize for it. She had already been forgiven. Besides, when did Mitarashi-fucking-Anko apologize to anyone? That wasn't her style…

Ok. Maybe she should say sorry just this once, "Naruto. I feel horrible. Can you forgi-OW! FUCK!"

Naruto had his hand raised and an annoyed look on his face. Anko, however, was holding her ringing and rapidly reddening ear.

"Did you just FUCKING SLAP ME?!" Anko shouted in anger and disbelief. Naruto just gave her the 'No Shit' face. He pointed to the paper and shrugged. He had given her ample warning if he did say so himself. Anko glared at him for a moment before smirking. The kid had balls of steel. Or maybe he just knew that he could get away with it. Either way he had just smacked HER, one of the deadliest kunoichi in the village, and kept a straight face. This was a feat worthy of note.

But soon Anko's face fell into a sad gaze as she stared at her feet. She had made her decision. 'I have to tell him everything. After what I did, he deserves to know.' she thought. But the thought of telling boy about her life terrified her. She believed he would judge and berate her like everyone else.

"Naruto?" Anko asked hesitantly to get his attention. He looked at her attentively, "I…have some things to tell you. Things that you should know if you want to continue to hang out with me. Because being around me is not a good career choice." Naruto hesitated for a few seconds before he nodded and gestured for her to continue.

Anko's eyes filled with the pain of memories and she began, "Well it all started when I was seven. My father was a Shinobi and my mother was a civilian woman. His name was Hikaru and my mother's was Amaya. On one of my father's missions his squad encountered Iwa ninja. Apparently there was still some bad blood there because of the war and they ended up fighting. My father's squad defeated the enemy but he himself was fatally wounded. He died before they reached the village."

Naruto felt sympathy towards Anko. His parents had probably met their end when Kyuubi attacked which was probably why the Yondaime used him as the sacrifice. A necessary evil.

"My mother was heartbroken. She used to be such a happy woman. She would sing and dance around the house with her purple hair waving around. She was beautiful. Kami was she beautiful. I-I can remember asking her how she got so pretty and if I would every look like she did." Anko sniffed and wiped her eyes a little with a smile as she continued, "She would always smile and tell me that I would grow up and be even more beautiful than she was. Hard to believe isn't it?"

'Not really…,' Naruto thought, 'Wait. Where did that come from?'

Anko kept going, "But after my father died, she wasn't happy anymore. She would put on a smile for me but I could see through it. She stopped eating and her skin got pale. And one day…I woke up and went to her room. She was still asleep I thought and I waited for her to wake up too. But she never did. I begged and cried but she never woke up. Eventually one of her friends stopped by and I was taken to the Hokage. He explained what happened but for a while I couldn't understand."

The blonde haired boy felt sadness clench his heart because he could hear the emotion in his friend's voice as she told her story. He could see the wetness welling up in her brown eyes.

"But then Orochimaru came and took me under his wing," the violet haired woman went on, "I almost instantly idolized him. I just thought he was amazing; so smart and strong. And he seemed to care for me. But when I became his apprentice he changed. He was a harsh teacher. We trained long hours and did grueling tasks. He didn't like failure or mistakes and you learned not to do either one often." Naruto was taken aback. Anko was the student of Orochimaru? He was one of the three sannin, wasn't he? He was also one of the greatest traitors that Konohagakure ever had.

Anko still had wet eyes but her eyes were filled with betrayal and pain now. Not sadness. She continued with her story, "But what I didn't know was that he was a vile creature. All he cared about was his own goals and his sick ideals. He had this…obsession with immortality and jutsu's. He wanted to find a way to live forever and learn all the jutsu in the world. He was…crazy."

Naruto, despite himself, was fascinated by the story that Anko was weaving. This Orochimaru character intrigued him to no end. Sure he seemed a bit touched, but what happens to a person to make them like that? However, the blonde quickly noticed that he had spaced out a quickly refocused on Anko.

"-urse mark. It's called the Cursed Seal of Heaven. I don't know much about it or Fuinjutsu in general but it gives the user a boost in power and physical capabilities. But it's evil. It corrupts the mind and makes you loyal to that bastard the more you use it," Anko growled out with her hand rubbing the left side of her neck. Naruto frowned as he put two and two together.

He quickly wrote down a question, '_Do you have one of these curse seals?" _ Anko nodded ashamedly. The blonde haired boy's frown deepened. His fascination with Orochimaru was quickly turning into a deep dislike.

The purple haired woman started to sniffle, "I got it after I completed my first Chunin exam. He took me to Umi no Kuni and he had a hidden hideout there. I didn't know what was going on and I just followed blindly. He took me to this awful lab where he had been doing experiment and there were nine other kids there. Before I realized what happened he had bitten me on the neck and I blacked out."

Naruto face scrunched up into a look of disgust. He did experiments on live people? And children no less? That man was not worthy to be labeled a person or criminal. He was a monster. A monster with possible pedophilic tendencies.

"But the worst part was when I woke up," Anko was actually crying now, "He told me that I was the only one who survived the seal. The others were dead. I was confused and in pain and he told me that I was weak. He said that I didn't have the desire for power that he needed. He left and tossed me to the side like trash! And all the while all I could ask myself is why everyone I ever cared about left. Why do they always leave?!" She broke down and Naruto pulled her close to him and for the second time that day wrapped his arms around her left her cry.

Kurama staunched the boy's pheromone output. At least for a while. He felt for the human girl. He also knew what it was like to be abandoned and put under control against your will. This Orochimaru had basically done the same thing to her by playing with her emotions. She needed this and he wouldn't ruin it. Maybe there were other humans out there besides the boy who were worthy of his trust. Maybe…

Naruto held Anko until the flood of emotions and tears had subsided. Naruto looked out the window and saw that it was close to sunset. An idea popped into his head and he stood up abruptly and pulled on his trench coat. The blonde haired boy grabbed Anko's hand and pulled her up. She was coming with him whether she wanted to or not. Naruto reached up and pulled her hitai-ate over her eyes and lead her out of the house before she could protest.

The duo looked odd as the resident Jinchuriki led Anko through the village streets at a high pace. Anko was barely recognizable because her hair was down and flowing behind her and she was dressed in casual clothes. Naruto looked the same but neither one had shoes on. Weird, right?

After about fifteen minutes of running and borderline hiking, the two arrived at their destination. It was cool that night so neither one of them was sweaty or dirty but Anko was huffing in embarrassment for no apparent reason.

"Where the hell are we, gaki? You just dragged me through the village with no shoes on, no trench coat, and my hair down. I swear if Ibiki hears about this I'll be ruined-," Anko stopped her rant when Naruto pulled the protector off her eyes. He had brought her to the top of the Hokage Monument and they were standing at the edge of the Third's head. The sun had just started to dip below the horizon and brilliant shades of orange and red splayed across the village and the treetops of the forest. Naruto sat down on one of the spikes of Hiruzen's hair and pulled Anko down beside him.

Anko was left speechless. She wasn't the romantic type or anything or even a girly kunoichi. She was tomboy through and through. But something about the view captured her in a trance. Then she jumped as she felt something slide into her left hand and squeeze gently. She looked down and saw that Naruto had intertwined his fingers with hers and was looking up at her with the brightest smile she had ever seen on his face. She smiled briefly before he put a notepad in her right hand and gestured for her to read it.

'_I will never leave you, Anko. Not until the breath leaves my body. That's a promise of a lifetime!'_

Somewhere deep inside herself Anko wanted to rip the note to shreds and throw it in his face. The promise was juvenile and naïve and part of her said that he would leave like all the others but then she remembered his smiling face and that part of her was squashed. Her eyes started to water and she returned his smile and she leaned down and kissed his cheek.

"I'll hold you to that, Naruto-kun."

Naruto nor Anko noticed the use of the honorific but a certain fox did and he muttered something about a little blonde ladies man.

The duo fell into silence as they watched the sunset with interlocked fingers. Only one thought passed through their minds.

'This is…nice.'

* * *

**Hey it me again. I hope you liked it. The whole hickey scene was in the blueprints for the chapter when I started but It popped into my mind and I started laughing my ass off. So I thought you guys would think it would be funny too. If not then I apologize. But would you guys want to see an Omake of when Naruto confronts the Hokage about it or when Tsume finds out about it?**

**So Naruto will be getting the ability to speak back. Not much though. He won't be able to make a speech or anything. Im thinking short sentences and nothing above a quiet voice. Does that work for you people until I decide to bring Tsunade into the picture?  
**

**Another thing that needs to be addressed. Team Assignments. I already have a team that I like. Anko, Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino. I will be putting a poll up about it. I really don't want the old team 7. One because I have special plans For Kakashi. Also I love Shino and I don't think He has any time to be the badass I know he is. I also don't want Naruto or Anko to have an Apprentice type thing going on because it reminds me too much of Orochimaru and Anko's relationship and I think it would cause problems. Plus it would be a bitch to explain. So i give these choices.**

**Team Badass- Anko, Naruto, Sasuke, and Shino. (I would prefer if you voted for this one)**

**Team Snake- Anko, Naruto, and Sasuke.**

**Team Hard to explain- Anko and Naruto.**

**Team canon- Team 7 *_* (Don't make me control you with fear. I've got Yamato on speed dial)**


	6. The Broken Ones 20

****Update****

Ok people. This might make you mad. But I really hope it doesn't because I have a good reason for doing so. I'm gonna scrap this story. But! I will not give up on The Broken Ones. I was halfway through chapter 6 when I started to reread the earlier chapters. I know you guys might have liked them but to be truthful I hated them. This story really deviated from what I had planned it to be. Mostly it was the Inuzuka thing. That done on a whim and it was because I had wanted to do an Inuzuka Naruto story but didn't want to make an entirely new story. So it was me being lazy. I started off all wrong and it killed the story.

But I'm going to start over! Under a whole new premise. It won't start off the same and Anko and Naruto will meet in a whole different way. I'm not going to go into too many details to avoid spoilers. I know a lot of you liked this but I don't think it fair to you for me to write at a half-assed capacity. It will still be The Broken Ones. Just different. I want to have Kurama and Naruto have the same kind of relationship as they did in this story but I want it to happen in a different way. No comas this time. So if you have any ideas about that PM me and let me know. Again, I'm sorry about this but I want to do the best that I can do and I just don't believe that this fits that requirement. So look out for The Broken Ones 2.0


	7. UPDATE! Rewrite is Up!

**HELL YEAH! I'm finally back. I have the Rewrite up for this story. It Is titled What Doesn't Kill You. Read it, read the author's note at the bottom, and let me know what you think. I know you've been waiting for ages.**


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